Resident Evil: Kryptonite
by Ataru-13
Summary: Not to be confused with ResidentEvilChained's "Resident Evil: Kryptonite." I am sorry that we ended up with the same title, but I made it up before I disovered your story. Based on the game series. Rater PG13 for coarse language and description of graphic
1. PROLOGUE

July 1998, Raccoon City

There are outlandish reports of families being attacked by a group of about 10 people. Victims were apparently eaten.

July 23, 1998, 10:00 P.M.

The Raccoon City's Police Department sends S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Service) Bravo Team to investigate in the manner, however, their helicopter experiences engine failure and they make a forced landing. The team ends up being ambushed by a pack of wild dogs and cannibalistic men. The only survivors of the incident are Rebecca Chambers and Enrico Marini.

July 24, 1998

S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team was sent in on a rescue mission to save their Bravo Team comrades. In an attack by the vicious dogs, Alpha Team's helicopter pilot, Brad Vickers had fled in an act of cowardice. The survivors: Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, Barry Burton and Albert Wesker were pushed back into a giant mansion which held many of the incident's secrets.

It was found out that a multinational pharmaceutical company Umbrella Inc. was responsible for the incident. The corporation had created an agent called the Tyrant Virus or T-Virus which they used to create Bio-Organic Weapons (B.O.W.) The virus would transform a human into a man eating zombie. It would also transform virtually any other species into a B.O.W. The S.T.A.R.S. had found their way into Umbrella's underground laboratory where Albert Wesker, the squad leader turned out to be an Umbrella employee and a traitor to the S.T.A.R.S. Wesker had blackmailed Barry Burton, telling him that unless he follows Wesker's every order, his family will be killed, "Don't blame Barry for everything, I hear that his better half and two lovely daughters will be in danger, if he doesn't do everything I tell him to." His plan of stealing the research had failed thanks to the efforts of Jill Valentine and Barry Burton, after finding out that Barry's family was in no danger. Chris Redfield had managed to rescue the Bravo Team member Rebecca Chambers. The four of them sent a signal to Brad Vickers and were about to escape when Umbrella's most dangerous experiment, the Tyrant attacked S.T.A.R.S. Chris Redfield managed to destroy the Tyrant with the help of a rocket launcher.

A journal was found speaking of another type of Virus called the G-Virus. At the time, details were unknown.

September 28, 1998

An accident occurred in an Umbrella laboratory and the T-Virus outbreak invades the city. Unlike Chris Redfield, Barry Burton and Rebecca chambers that had left the city, Jill Valentine stayed and was forced to survive the nightmare. Umbrella had dispatched a Tyrant-Parasite code named Nemesis was dispatched to dispose of any remaining S.T.A.R.S. members in Raccoon City. Brad Vickers suffers the wrath of Nemesis while Jill Valentine had managed to get away from the monster. She met up with a few members of U.B.C.S. (Umbrella's Biohazard Countermeasure Service) who claimed that they were sent in to rescue civilians. Among these members were Carlos Olivera, Nicholai Ginovayev and the wounded Mikhail Victor. Nicholai and Mikhail suffer death while Jill and Carlos manage to reach a designated spot where a helicopter is supposed to rescue them. Nemesis shoots down the helicopter with a Rocket Launcher and infects Jill with the T-Virus. Nemesis is fought off while Jill falls into a coma.

September 29, 1998

Claire Redfield came into Raccoon City looking for her brother Chris only to find the city infested with man eating Zombies everywhere. She finds a rookie police officer named Leon S. Kennedy and a young girl named Sherry Birkin. It is found out that Sherry Birkin was the daughter of Umbrella's leading researcher William Birkin, who was working on an experimental virus called the G-Virus which had effects even more powerful that those of the T-Virus. Umbrella had sent in a salvage team of soldiers to retrieve the G-Virus; however William Birkin would not give it up and gets near-fatally wounded. He injects the G-Virus into himself and extracts his revenge on the team of soldiers. However, his wrath does not stop there, since he loses all intelligence, he goes after his daughter. Umbrella also dispatched a Tyrant to retrieve the G-Virus and it also goes after Sherry Birkin who, unknowingly, possessed the virus in a locket she worn around her neck. Another agent is sent it to steal the G-Virus. Her name is Ada Wong and she was sent in by an unknown corporation. She falls in love with Leon S. Kennedy and dies at the hands of Annette Birkin, the wife of William Birkin. Annette dies from a sudden collapsing of pipes near a ceiling. Leon, Claire and Sherry escape Raccoon City by means of a train on the morning of September 30th. A surviving agent Hunk, of Umbrella's salvage team manages to survive and escapes the city with a sample of G-Virus in hand.

October 1, 1998

Carlos Olivera finds a vaccine to the T-Virus and Jill makes a full recovery. Nicholai Ginovayev turns out to be alive and had been sent in by Umbrella not to rescue civilians, but to gather combat data from the battles between his soldiers and the monsters that roamed Raccoon City. Carlos also finds out that at dawn Umbrella would launch a missile barrage which would destroy the city. Nicholai escapes the city with the only helicopter that Carlos and Jill had. They are saved by Barry Burton who flies in just in time to rescue the two. The helicopter flies off into the distance as Raccoon City is bombarded by missiles.

January, 1999

Claire Redfield, in search for her brother, gets captured by Umbrella and is sent to a prison on a remote island, Rockfort. The island is attacked by an unknown group and Claire is released only to find herself stuck on a zombie-infested piece of rock. She meets up with a teenage boy named Steve Burnside who was also a prisoner on the island, and sends an E-Mail to Leon telling him the information she had received concerning the whereabouts of her brother and the fact that he was being monitored by Umbrella. That E-Mail was also an S.O.S. message for Leon to inform Chris of Claire's whereabouts and rescue her. As she and Steve escape the traps of the island's owner, Alfred Ashford, and his sister Alexia, few things become clear. Alfred Ashford suffers from multiple personality and had actually cross-dressed as his, supposedly nonexistent, sister Alexia. It is also becomes evident that the S.T.A.R.S. traitor, Albert Wesker, mysteriously turns up alive and with incredible strength and speed. It was, in fact, Wesker and his soldiers who had attacked the island. The name of the company, that Wesker had sold himself to, was not specified, however, based on the initials H.C.F. it is presumable that Umbrella's rival company is in fact Health Care Foundation. Claire and Steve escape the island only to find their plane is being led to the Antarctic via autopilot. In an Antarctic Umbrella base, Claire and Steve separate and get captured by an unknown being.

Around that time, Chris Redfield arrives on Rockfort Island, which is now in ruins. Soon after his arrival, Chris also discovers that his former comrade Wesker is alive and somehow has achieved the strength and agility beyond that of a normal human. At that point, Chris also finds out that Claire was now in the Antarctic Umbrella base and flies off to rescue her. Upon his arrival to the Antarctic base, Chris finds Claire, but they get separated quickly by the creature that had captured Claire in the first place: Alexia Ashford. The sister of, at that point, deceased Alfred Ashford was real after all. She had been infected with a new type of virus called the T-Veronica Virus, which turned her into a creature more powerful than any Umbrella creation in the past. Claire soon finds Steve, imprisoned, but their reunion is interrupted as Steve transforms into a giant behemoth as a result of being infected with the T-Veronica Virus. Steve is unable to control himself and attacks Claire, nearly killing her. A giant tentacle crashed through the wall and constricts Claire in order to set her up for the kill. However, Steve fights his urge to kill her and lashes out against the tentacle resulting in his own demise. Chris finds the self destruct system of the base but after setting it off, he is attacked by Alexia, who is growing and mutating rapidly. After a vicious battle, Chris manages to destroy her using an experimental weapon. As Chris goes to reunite with Claire, he discovers her held captive by Wesker. Chris decides to fight Wesker, but his human strength is no match for Wesker, "Sure, I'm not human anymore! But just look at the power I've gained!" Chris manages to wound Wesker thanks to a few metal beams and an explosion, he then escapes the island with Claire, but Wesker said that they would meet again.

An organization had been set up to battle umbrella and to expose them for their illegal work, however no real evidence so far has survived. This organization consists of the former S.T.A.R.S. member that survived Raccoon city as well as Leon and many other survivors of Umbrella's evil.

May 23, 2003

The survivors of Raccoon City are still battling Umbrella. Barry Burton was sitting at his desk in a small apartment building. He, Jill and Leon had worked in that apartment temporarily, they would move from place to place to seek security from Umbrella. Jill and Leon were out on a mission to Europe at the moment and Barry was left all alone. Rather, with his best friend: The custom .44 Colt Python magnum revolver. Barry was looking through some paper work at 11:00 A.M. when the phone rang. The caller ID did not identify a name or number. Barry picked up, "Hello?"

"Barry?" The voice belonged to John Carlton, one of the people who were in the alliance against Umbrella. John was spying on Umbrella from one of their main buildings in Europe. The whole building was dedicated to White Umbrella. White Umbrella was the name of the branch of Umbrella which was in charge of their military, viral weaponry and genetic research.

"Steve! What is it? Any news?" Barry was anxious to hear from John, because calling an outside line from the White Umbrella building was extremely risky, whish meant that John must have had some news.

"I don't got a lot of time to talk, now, Barry. White this down," John was whispering apparently not wanting to be noticed. Barry picked up a pen and got writing.

"There is an underground Umbrella lab in the western forests of California, somewhere in Tahoe forest. Couple of days ago we lost contact with their lab," he said as Barry wrote everything down, "We suspect that T-Virus leaked. So far, the civilians don't suspect anything, but the risk of an outbreak is potentially high. You gonna check it out?"

"I don't know," said Barry, "I'm here alone, but I'll find a way to check it out soon enough, there should be plenty of evidence there to put Umbrella away for good."

"Right, think of something. Listen, don't expect to hear from me for a while, I', gonna keep on the low pro for a while."

"Alright, take care of yourself, Johnny."

"Thanks. Listen, say hi to..." Then the phone hung up.

"Hello? Hello! Johnny?" No answer.

_Damn it Johnny, be careful!_ Barry thought to himself as he turned on the computer, went on a search engine and searched 'Tahoe Forest'.


	2. ONE

Vincent Smith walked along the halls of the police station, sipping on an ice tea. Vincent was the Leader of the S.T.A.R.S. branch of Reno. He had the qualities of a leader, not only personality wise, but appearance wise as well. He stood five feet ten inches tall and had a decent build. He had short, brown hair styled in a crew cut. He thought about what Barry said to him the other day. It was going to be the hardest mission of Smith's life, and he knew that. However, Smith couldn't back down on it; Barry had helped him get promoted to S.W.A.T. He already took care of the permission from the police chief, but to tell the other members of his team what this mission was about was not going to be easy. Smith took a final sip of his tea and tossed the can into a garbage bin. Smith once again thought about the difficulty of this mission and tried to put a positive view on things.

_Remember what your father told you, Vincent,_ he thought, _any kind of hardship builds character. And when you complete this mission you will come out a better man._

"_If_ I complete it," He said out loud and opened the door to the S.T.A.R.S. office.

Nick Andrews sat at his desk, typing some reports. Nick was the computer expert of the S.T.A.R.S. He had managed to turn his past as a hacker into something useful. Nick was a fairly tall man with dark blonde hair and hazel eyes behind thin glasses. He was drinking a coffee, despite the fact that he hated the taste of it.

"Hey, Smith," he said to Vincent not taking his eyes from the monitor, "Big day today?"

"You have no idea," Smith said as another member of S.T.A.R.S. walked in the room.

Jerrika Hawkins was the communications expert for the S.T.A.R.S. She was one of the two female members of this branch of S.T.A.R.S, but you wouldn't be able to tell. With a nickname like Jerry, she was a tomboy. She acted and dressed like a man, not to say that she denied her womanhood. However in combat, Jerry would probably be more dangerous than Nick.

"Hey, Jerry," Nick said, still keeping his eyes on the monitor.

"How you feeling?" Smith asked, hoping that one of his best soldiers was ready for what could possibly be the toughest mission of their lives.

"I'm fine, why do you ask?" she said. As manly as she acted, her voice still had a soft tone of a woman and Smith figured that she probably hated that.

"Glad to hear that," Smith replied, "because I'm pretty sure that if there was ever a time when shit hit the fan, tonight's the night."

Just then, Michael White had walked in the room.

"Hey," he said. "Who's the big guy outside the door?"

"That's Barry," Smith answered, "He's coming with us on the mission."

"Really?" Mike answered, "Nice to know that he'll be backing my ass."

Mike was a tall, well built man with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. He was the demolitions expert of the S.T.A.R.S.

"So, where's everyone else?" Mike asked as the door swung open, and another individual entered the room.

Nick finished typing up the final report and turned off the computer. He looked at the door as Nancy Brown, the squad medic had entered the room. Nancy was an older woman. Thirty eight years old made her the oldest member of that branch of S.T.A.R.S. She did not have much experience in law enforcement or field combat, but she was a very good medic and she passed the police academy, which technically made her qualified to be in S.T.A.R.S.

"So what's going on tonight?" she asked, "We got an important mission or what?"

Nick was wondering the same thing all evening, but never bothered to ask, he was there to work, and whether the mission was important or not didn't matter.

"I wouldn't get too excited," said Smith. Nick saw Smith's face and felt a clump of dread at the pit of his stomach. The expression on Smith's face was extremely unusual. Last time Nick saw that face was when they had the mission where a little girl was kidnapped and they had to take out a murderer while the little girl was at gunpoint. Only this time, his face was about a hundred times tenser.

"Well, we don't have the time to wait for Briggs," said Smith, "We're going to have to start the briefing without him."

Dallas Briggs was the weapons expert of the S.T.A.R.S. He was a tall, well built African American man. He was in his mid thirties and had very short hair. He had extensive knowledge of weapons and would always be a great help on a battlefield.

_Speak of the devil,_ Nick thought to himself as Dallas entered the room in a rush.

"Sorry I'm late," he said as he quickly rushed up to his desk, "Car accident." The truth is, Dallas was late a lot, he only lived a couple of blocks away from the police station, but he always made excuses. It didn't matter, Dallas was their weapons expert and Smith wasn't planning to fire him anytime soon.

Dallas hated being late, but he was always busy. He had recently divorced his wife and he spent a lot of time with his lawyer over dividing the property. Dallas said to himself that he'd get to work on time, but was never able to accomplish it.

"Don't worry, Briggs," said Smith, "You didn't miss much. We were about to start the briefing."

Dallas was relieved; Smith _did_ say that this mission was extremely important. Smith finally spoke, rolling out a map of the U.S.

"We are going to be infiltrating Tahoe forest west of here."

"California?" asked Nick, "Are we legally allowed to work outside of Reno at all?"

"Nick," Smith said as he sighed, "The police chief doesn't know about this mission, neither does the government of California." Smith walked over to the wall and leaned against it, "This mission is a personal favor I am doing for Barry. No, it goes further than that. This mission is extremely important." Smith walked over to the map again and pointed to Tahoe forest, "Barry believes that there is an underground lab ran by Umbrella incorporated where they were conducting research and development of biological weapons."

"Sounds pretty damn ridiculous, Smith," Jerry said bluntly, she was always the type to say what everyone else was thinking. At least Dallas agreed with her.

_Right on, Jerry! Damn! What the hell is Smith thinking? Biological weapons! That's like saying that Canada is planning to invade the world! Damn, Smith, you really lost it this time._

"All we are going to do is check it out," Smith spoke up, "Barry gave me the exact location, we are going out there and if there is nothing suspicious, we'll go home. Simple enough?" The rest of the S.T.A.R.S. couldn't really say anything, Smith _was_ the boss. But Dallas decided to speak up for once, "So what are we going to do? Barge in and tell them that we're shutting them down?"

"According to Barry," Smith said as he was interrupted by Jerry again, "Barry said, Barry said! Don't you have _any_ independent thoughts whatsoever?"

"Jerrika," Smith said, he always called everyone by their full first name when he was angry or frustrated, "This is a favor that I owe to Barry! All we're going to do is check it out. If there's _any_thing, suspicious, we will investigate further."

The S.T.A.R.S. entered the forest via Smith's jeep. They couldn't take the helicopter because they did not have a legal permit to conduct this mission. Each S.T.A.R.S. member wore a standard S.T.A.R.S. uniform issued by Reno Police Department. Green Combat pants, orange T-Shirt and a black S.T.A.R.S. tactical vest. The standard S.T.A.R.S. uniform for women included the same fatigues as the male, except instead of the S.T.A.R.S. tactical vest, women wore Kevlar vests or shoulder packs. Nancy wore a Kevlar vest, while Jerry wore shoulder packs. The forest was around 100 miles away from Reno, so the drive took a few hours, by this time it was already 11:00 P.M. Dallas was bored out of his mind, he didn't believe anything that Barry had said, but instead of building tension between the two, Dallas decided to get along with the guy. They talked about guns pretty much the whole way, since Barry was also a fan of guns. But after they said everything that could possibly be said about guns, things got boring. However, they had arrived and were now exploring the forest area. Most of the S.T.A.R.S. brought the standard Berettas issued to them. However, Dallas wasn't satisfied with a handgun, he brought his Jackhammer Mk3A1 Shotgun. Smith and Barry also brought their personal weapons, Barry carried his favorite custom Colt Python with .44 Magnum bullets and Smith carried a Colt King Cobra loaded with .357 Magnum rounds, however, all three of them carried their Berettas as a sidearm although Dallas doubted that they'd need it. As they searched about, Nick screamed out, "I found something! Holy shit, it's a body!" The S.T.A.R.S. had all rushed to the body as Nick said, "He's dead."

"No shit, Sherlock!" Said Jerry, "Thank you, Mr. Obvious."

The body itself was of a man, possibly in his mid thirties, "He's been dead for only at least a week, probably more," said Nancy, "He's been shot." She turned around to look at Smith, "Look at this," she said. "On his jacket. It looks like the Umbrella logo and a name tag, M. Lockend. I wonder who he was."

"Keep searching," said Smith, "Nancy, you stay here and investigate the body further."

"Affirmative," she said, as Dallas quickly walked away, he didn't want to be near that stinky, rotting cadaver any longer. A few more minutes of searching and Smith yelled out, "Hey guys! Over here!" Dallas and the rest approached what looked like a small hut or a cabin in the middle of the woods.

"What is it?" Nick asked. Barry looked at it and said, "This could be it. It's very possible that inside there is some sort of an elevator that will lead us to the lab."

_What if he's right,_ Dallas thought. _What if Umbrella _IS_ conducting something illegal? The stiff from before, he _was_ wearing the Umbrella logo._ However, Dallas wasn't sure about anything at this point. He tried the door, it was locked, but not too securely, so he easily kicked it open. He and Barry entered the cabin. It was empty, but looked a lot smaller from the inside than it did from the outside. Barry noticed it right away and kicked the back wall of it. The board broke to reveal another room. The wood seemed weak and unstable. Barry and Dallas had managed to reveal the rest of the room, but other than a hatch on the floor. It was tightly sealed with a big lock. Dallas said, "Stand back," as he pointed his shotgun at it. Barry stepped back and with a loud bang, Dallas fired the gun, it wasn't as easy as the movies show it to be, but Dallas _was_ an expert after all. The lock shattered allowing them to open the hatch. Dallas did so and gasped in shock as he jumped back. The hatch contained an underground room which was filled to the top with dead bodies. Dallas was lucky he had a strong stomach, otherwise he would have lost it right there. The bodies looked like they were dead for months, at least that's what Dallas thought, he wasn't a medic, but they corpses had no flesh, their red faces and blank looks in their eyes. They had unusually large nails as well, Dallas knew that nails continue to grow even after a person is dead, but were they supposed to grow that much? The nails were at least two inches long and all the bodies looked like they had scratch marks all over them. What if the people thrown in there were still alive? What if they died after someone locked them in there? Dallas did not want to think about it. He did not have time to think about it either. He was shocked and confused by the way one of the corpses stood up all of a sudden and roared. Everything happened so quickly that Dallas didn't have the time to react. The, now walking corpse had slashed at him with the long nails. Dallas screamed in pain and surprise as he stumbled backward. He aimed his shotgun in a quick snap of reality and shot at the chest of the… The zombie. There was no other word for it, it was a zombie, like in all those B-movies he watched when he was younger. The zombie did not fall however, it stumbled back but then went towards Dallas again. Just as that happened, Dallas heard Barry say, "Get away from it! Come on!" Dallas ran back, but wasn't able to make enough distance, the zombie caught up with him and scratched him in the back this time.

"Run! Quickly!" Smith yelled as the six of them got into a group and ran away from the zombie. Or zombies, there were now five of them chasing them.

Nancy ran, trying to catch up to the group, "Nancy, no!" Dallas screamed as one of the zombies had lunged at her and tackled her to the ground, taking a bite out of her. Dallas quickly turned around and shot away at two other zombies, then ran for Nancy. Blood was everywhere, the zombie had chewed through her neck. "No!" Dallas screamed as he blasted the zombie in the head at point blank range. Suddenly, another zombie had grabbed him from the back and bit into his shoulder. As big as Dallas was, he could not overpower the zombie and was also taken down. The pain he experienced made him see red, it was a blinding pain. In his shoulder, in his neck, then everything turned black and Dallas did not have to worry about being eaten anymore.


	3. TWO

"Don't stop, keep running!" Barry screamed as he ran as fast as he could, turning around and firing from his pistol every once in a while. The other S.T.A.R.S. members fired as well. These were no ordinary zombies though. As Barry remembered the Spencer Estate incident back in 1998, he remembered these zombies. Normally, a zombie created through T-Virus was slow and clumsy. However, a zombie can be shot down and unless they are incinerated or decapitated, they will stay dormant for a while and will mutate further into what is known as a V-ACT or a 'crimson head.' These variations were a lot faster and stronger, therefore more dangerous than a standard zombie. They would eventually mutate into an even more horrible monster with large claws and a long, lance like tongue that is strong enough to twist of a person's head. Barry, however, hoped that they would not have to resort to fighting _those_ creatures. This scene seemed all too familiar, they were running for a house in the woods. It was a two story house that did not look too big, not half as big as Umbrella's other mansions. Umbrella always used mansions and other beautiful pieces of architecture to hide the entrances to their illegal labs. However, upon entering the mysterious house in the woods, Barry all of a sudden doubted that it was Umbrella's. This house seemed as average as Barry's own. Barry and four other S.T.A.R.S. members had made it into the house. It seemed as though Dallas and Nancy were not lucky enough to survive the first wave.

The S.T.A.R.S. stood in the room, looking around. It was an average living room, a TV in the northwest corner, a coffee table in the middle of the room and a couch in front of it. Barry was pretty disappointed.

"What the hell was that?" Michael asked what everyone, _but_ Barry, were wondering.

"Crimson heads," Barry replied, "A zombie which undergoes stasis is-"

Suddenly, the door was almost swung open by a crimson head, it took Barry and Smith to push the creature back out and hold the door. "Scatter! Explore the house, call for help, find an exit, whatever! Report as soon as you find anything, leave no stone unturned. Barry, you go too, I'll take care of the door."

"Are you sure?" Barry asked,

"Just do it!" Smith said, pushing on the door.

As soon as the S.T.A.R.S. got into the house, Nick went to the couch. A strange odor emanated from somewhere in the distance. It reeked of mold, but it was not strong. Sitting on the couch, Nick took out his laptop from his backpack. He had a wireless connection on it and could easily call the other S.T.A.R.S. team, back at the Police Station, for help. Right away he began to type a distress message, "S.O.S. Need assistance. Danger is critical. Officer down. Bring heavy fire power. Team pinned down in an aban-" That was as far as he got when the crimson head smashed the door open. Without thinking, Nick jumped up on his feet and drew his gun at the door. This action caused nick's laptop to slide from his lap onto the floor, smashing into pieces. The one thing about this house that _did_ resemble Umbrella's architecture was the marble floor. How nick wished there was a rug on that floor, but wishing wouldn't make it so.

"Shit!" Nick said to himself in a voice of desperation.

When Smith told them to scatter, Nick obeyed blindly, dumbstruck by his foolish mistake.

Jerrika nodded at Smith's order and proceeded into the next room. The moon shone through a large window into what looked like a dining room with a staircase on the left and a doorway adjacent to it. There was also a doorway parallel to that one on the opposite wall. Jerrika decided to check that particular door. It led to a small corridor which had two more doorways, one leading into a bathroom and the other into a small bedroom. It was dark and there was no power, but Jerrika was fine with her halogen flashlight. The bedroom had clothes scattered on the bed, it looked like the belonged to a woman. Jerrika approached the closet and carefully slid the door open causing a stack of boxes to fall on top of her. Extremely annoyed by this she kicked at them thinking to herself, _Damn it you don't need high heels out here in the woods! Why the hell do you need so many boxes, lady?_

As she kicked one of the boxes, it flew hitting the wall. No high heels were that heavy, Jerrika thought, even though she never actually wore high heels. She approached the box and opened it, inside was a Steyr M-1A pistol. _Why the hell would anyone need it out here? _she thought, _Unless…_

She picked up the Steyr, putting her Beretta into the holster on her pants. She checked the ammo, the gun was full. She, then, began to investigate the room further.

"Let me think," Bruce Painston said to himself, looking at the map of the lab as he sat in Testing Room D on the third basement level of the lab that was located below the house in the woods, "If I am right here," he said to himself. "And the self destruct mechanism is... All the way down there... The passage is probably blocked by those damn creatures, and certainly I don't have enough ammunition to get rid of them." He looked over at the gamma hunters, large frog-like creatures which were incubating in the capsules beside him, "What the devil are you staring at?" he said. He then took a deep breath and sat down in a chair. "How the hell am I supposed to reach the damn Basement level seven?"

Bruce searched for any vital information he could find from the mainframe of the Umbrella Laboratory Computer Network, he accidentally clicked on the surveillance system. The system detected movement in the house that hid the entrance to the lab. A quick glance at the screen and the image scared and intrigued him. He immediately recognized the uniforms. It was S.T.A.R.S. They were like the arch nemeses to Umbrella, ever since the Spencer Estate incident back in 1998. But they were not just S.T.A.R.S. to Bruce. They were a glimpse of hope.   
Normally, Umbrella either abandons their labs which have been massacred by the T-Virus or destroys them from the inside. In either case, there was no hope for survival until now. With the presence of S.T.A.R.S, Bruce would be able to contact White Umbrella Headquarters and request a group of mercenaries to be dispatched to make sure the S.T.A.R.S. won't get away with any important evidence. However for Bruce, that meant salvation. He took another good look at the map layout for the lab and saw that the nearest communications room is not too far away from his current location. He gripped his gun in one hand, a spare clip in the other and walked out the door, looking at either side.  
He ran towards the corridor on the right and was confronted by a zombie.   
"Piece of cake," he said under his nose. He then pointed the gun at the zombie's head and fired. Clotted blood and brain tissue scattered all over. He advanced forward, passing a sleeping Cerberus, the hound woke up but Bruce was able to exit in time.  
He was finally in the communications room. There was a communications control panel. Now, another problem occurred... He never used one of these things. He started clicking buttons here and there. He finally found a file with different numbers on it. He noticed a number combination that said "W-UMB HQ" beside it. He pushed the corresponding buttons and a male voice spoke out of the headphones, "This is the main White Umbrella Headquarters, over."   
"This is Doctor Bruce Painston, I am in the Tahoe Forest lab, the one that was infected with the virus a few days ago. I have some vital information for you, it is regarding the team of S.T.A.R.S. who are attempting to infiltrate the lab, possibly in search of evidence," Bruce said firmly, "Now listen carefully! I am not able to reach the self destruct system safely, and therefore I cannot detonate this lab. I require the assistance of a UBCS unit, over."  
The voice responded, "Negative, the UBCS units are trained for top priority outbreaks only. We will send to you a lower military unit to take care of the problem, over and out."  
Bruce sighed with relief, "Let's hope they get to me safely."

Smith was holding the door closed in the living room of the house as the crimson heads scratched and pushed at the door while growling. Jerry walked into the room quickly, "Any news?" Smith asked her.

"I found a gun in one of the bedrooms, other than that, no."

Barry had walked into the living room as well, "I found the basement, there's no power in this house, so it was hard to see anything with my flashlight. I think the main fuse is missing, though. How are things here?"

Barry walked up to the window to check out the situation, three crimson heads were clawing at the door and one of them heard or saw Barry at the window and attacked the window, breaking it.

"Shit!" Barry stepped back and pointed his gun at the entering crimson head. IT got up really fast and lunged at Barry. All he could to was stumble back quickly and hoot the creature in the head. The head shattered but that followed by the entrance of two other crimson heads. Smith stepped back and drew his gun, "It's useless, get out of this room!"

When Smith told the S.T.A.R.S. to scatter, Michael White followed Jerrika and they split at the dining room. Mike went into the right door which left into the kitchen. There was a back door, but it looked like a crimson head had found its way to that door and was trying to break in. Mike pointed his gun at the door, but then realized that the door was shut securely. It really seemed like nobody was home. Mike took a look around the kitchen using his flashlight. There were two refrigerators. He could see why it made sense. Whoever lived in that house probably needed enough supplies since they would not go three miles every week to go grocery shopping. He decided to inspect the food to make a rough judgment of when the power went out, it could give him enough clues to know when the people left the house. He pulled the handle of the fridge and it opened up. Except it was not a refrigerator, but a strange, dark staircase leading down. Michael went to check it out and descended it, the odor of mold grew stronger as Michael passed walls that dripped with water, it seemed like he was all of a sudden in a dark cave. As he reached the end of it, a metallic door blocked his way. There was a small computer terminal on the side and a keyboard with only letters, numbers and an 'Enter' key. The screen was lit and it said "Enter Pass-code." It was pretty obvious to Mike that the code would open the door, and it probably led to the labs. Just then, Michael heard glass breaking and rushed upstairs. On his way there, he encountered the rest of the S.T.A.R.S.

"Those things got inside!" Smith yelled as he turned around and shot at one of them two times, not able to see if he hit it or not. The roaring persisted.

"Follow me!" Mike replied and the five S.T.A.R.S. members rushed down into the secret passage inside the fake refrigerator.


	4. THREE

As the Umbrella helicopter flew over the Tahoe forest, Kell Rowth, the corporal of Guard and Retrieval Unit Neutralizing Terrorism or (G.R.U.N.T.) of Umbrella, rubbed his eyes, still half asleep. Kell was a young man of twenty-four and had long blonde hair, but since umbrella issued black uniforms and anti-gas helmets, nobody's hair or face was visible. Kell and his team had been woken up by an alarm in the middle of the night and injected with some peptides or something, Kell wasn't really sure, he was too tired to pay attention. Walter Engel was giving them the briefing of their mission on the helicopter. Being an Umbrella soldier paid off, the money was excellent, but if there was an emergency, they'd have to go. And this seemed like an emergency, based on Walter's words. Walter was their leader, a forty-five year old male, real Arian, blonde spiked up hair, large forehead, and high cheekbones.

"This mission is of utmost importance," Walter said, "One of Umbrella's labs had been invaded by a group of terrorists disguised as S.T.A.R.S." he lied, "We are to infiltrate the laboratory, locate the members of the terrorist unit and terminate them. However, something very unfortunate happened, because of the terrorists, one of the viruses that Umbrella was researching the cure for had leaked" Walter persisted with his lies, the fact was, this lower unit of soldiers were not cleared for the more secret information, therefore there had to be a cover story to make Umbrella still seem legal, "and some of the lab workers may have experienced the more dire effects of it. They are potentially dangerous and are to be shot in the head on sight. Because of the accident, following the execution of the terrorists, we will proceed into the lower levels of the lab and execute the self destruct system."

Walter was then interrupted by the pilot, "We're here," he said calmly.

"Our point of infiltration will be one click away from the lab entry point. We do not want to let our presence be known. Stay alert, soldiers, some of the victims of the virus may be in the forest," Walter said as the helicopter descended onto a clear spot on the ground. "Head north from here," he added as the six Umbrella soldiers quickly headed in the same direction. Each soldier was issued an HK MP-5N Sub Machine-Gun, a SIG Pro 2340 handgun as a sidearm, an M67 fragmentation-grenade, two small sets of C4, a flare gun for each member and an antivirus. Officially stated to be the antivirus, Walter knew that he was the only one who had the actual anti-virus. The rest of the team, excluding Kell—who was Walter's friend, not just a teammate—had something that may have looked like the so called 'Daylight,' but in reality, their vials contained something that would be crucial to this exercise. Especially since Umbrella wanted S.T.A.R.S. as their little guinea pigs.

In the secret passage of the house, Nick now understood where the stale smell came from. Wherever Michael was leading them, Nick hoped that it would not smell as bad. As the dark corridor came to an end, a small computer terminal illuminated the immediate area, including the metal electronic door beside it. The screen said "Enter Pass-code."

"No tricks, I hope," Mike said.

"Leave it to me," Nick said and walked up to it, "Any ideas as to what the code might be?"

Barry started listing possible ideas, everything that came into his head, "T-Virus, G-Virus, Birkin, Raccoon City, Veronica, Arklay, Spencer, Ashford, Marcus, Nemesis" when he was interrupted by Nick, "Whoa! Slow down! Okay, what was after T-Virus?"

"G-Virus," Barry said. As he listed the possible codes, all that appeared was "Access Denied, Access Denied."

"Access denied, yeah, shut the hell up!" Nick got angry and frustrated, "Nothing else comes to mind, Barry?"

"I don't know! Superman?" Barry replied, sounding just as frustrated as Nick felt.

In a sigh of laughter, Nick typed the in 'Superman' and at first he thought that he was so bored that he fell asleep and was dreaming because what he saw on the screen said, "Access Granted" in green letters and the door made a hum of unlocking and swung open. Nick's jaw swung open without him noticing it as he stared at the open door. He looked at the others, it was dead silent. Ironically the _un_dead had broken the silence upstairs as Smith turned around and pointed his gun at the staircase, but the crimson heads upstairs did not find the secret refrigerator just yet, if they even could. Nick's attention was drawn back to the, now opened, door. Still amazed, Nick slowly proceeded forward to make sure that he was not hallucinating. Smith caught up with him and led the team. Jerrika also caught up to nick and whispered as if she had to be quiet in there, "How did you do that?"

"I don't know," Nick replied.

"No, seriously!" Jerrika spoke louder now.

"Barry was the one who told me," he replied, "I didn't think it was going to work."

"Enough," Smith said in a calm, but sturdy voice, "This must be the entrance to the lab, from this point on, things are going to get a lot more unpredictable," he said. "Stay alert."

Smith took point and carefully, but quickly advanced through the metallic corridor, lit up by fluorescent lights that were on the upper parts of the walls. It seemed so cold, with walls made of metal and white, almost bluish lights, shiny, but cold. The wall had large, red writing on it. It said, "B1F." Smith assumed that that meant that they were in Basement one level of the lab, however, the hall quickly led to an elevator. Smith looked back to make sure the whole teams was in tact, and then pushed the call button, summoning the elevator. At least the power was on. The five remaining S.T.A.R.S. member had descended, but it would not go lower than one floor. Meaning that the S.T.A.R.S. were now on Basement Two level of the lab. Smith led on, listening to Barry talk about the T-Virus and the Raccoon City incident. Eventually the curved corridor had met a door and two pathways, to the left and to the right. Smith looked both ways, empty. He was surprised not to find anything, anything at all. However, it was time to make a dire decision. There were three ways to go, the team had to be split. Smith took a few seconds to think about it while the others caught up.

"Okay," Smith said, "We are going to split up from here. Jerry, Mike, you come with me, we'll go right. Barry, Nick, take left. There is only one elevator leading down, so whoever gets stuck at a dead end, comes back and explores this door. Understood?"

Barry had saluted, Nick followed and the two headed for the door at the end of the left path. Smith went left, Jerry and Mike followed. The door led to a catwalk. However the sides of it were reinforced with what felt like Plexiglas, isolating the catwalk from the area below. Speaking of which, as Smith looked below, he got a weird feeling about what he saw. Below was an area that looked like artificial jungle, the trees and bushed were obviously fake. It looked a lot like some sort of testing grounds, with the catwalk being the observation point. It seemed as though Barry was telling the truth about Umbrella, the creatures outside were proof enough.

Smith proceeded to the end of the corridor, opening the door, looked back, seeing Jerry and Mike talking.

"What do you think they were doing here?" Mike asked.

"I don't know," Jerry said, "Guess we'll just have to find out, huh?" Jerry sounded like she had major combat high. She sounded and looked like she was ready to shoot down anything that comes her way.

Smith proceeded to the room at the end of the catwalk. The room looked like an observation centre. It had nine screens observing different areas of the lab. Two of them were focused on the artificial jungle, three of them showed different empty corridors, one of them showed a corridor with a person in it, but it may have been one of the undead. Two of the cameras were on, but showed only darkness. One, final camera showed what looked like the cafeteria, and it seemed as though there was a survivor, trying to avoid a zombie there.

"Jerry!" Smith called, "You and Mike find the cafeteria and help the survivor, I'll investigate this area."

"Aye-Aye," Jerry said as she saluted and ran off, Mike followed.

As Smith looked at the screen, he almost choked on his own saliva, the woman was not running away from a zombie, but a whole pack of them, "Shit, Jerry, be careful," Smith said to himself and turned around, looking around the room. The room also had a small desk, a computer terminal, possibly for controlling the surveillance, and a file cabinet. There was a cooking pot on the floor with burnt papers in it. Smith opened up one of the file cabinets, as he suspected, they were empty. He doubted that there was any paper evidence left in this lab. Still, Smith decided to investigate the room further. He searched the other file cabinets and found a belt pouch with a half-full bottle of painkillers in it. He thought that it was a useful this to keep, but it still didn't help him get out of the lab. Smith decided to search further. He even went as far as to look underneath the file cabinets, hoping to find a key taped to it. Nothing. He checked the desk, it was open. There was a heavy envelope in the desk, Smith opened it and inside was card key labeled 'MASTER' and a letter, or rather, a memo.

In case of an emergency, the master key can open any door within the lab, leading to the emergency self-destruct system on B7F, as well as the escape elevator leading to a helipad with an emergency phone line and a flare gun. This system was made for any survivors of a viral outbreak. Remember that anyone trying to access the emergency elevator is required to go through a sterilization room. If the advanced scanners detect T-Virus presence, the temperature will increase to extreme levels until the presence of a virus has diminished. Be careful, if you are infected you are better off shooting yourself instead of burning alive. Use this key wisely. It is your only hope.

Smith was very happy to know that there was another way out. He gladly put the Master Keycard into his vest pocket and exited the room, running along the catwalk he slipped on a piece of glass, almost falling. He then noticed that one of the glass walls on the catwalk was broken.

_What could break Plexiglas like that? _Smith thought to himself. He, then, got up and kept running, he was almost at the door when something grabbed him by the vest and pulled him down into the fake jungle beneath the catwalk, he hit the floor slamming his left shoulder hard. That was going to bruise. Smith didn't have time to realize what happened when he was being dragged along the floor. What he saw shocked him greatly. A giant spider, the length of a human, was dragging him by the back of his vest, by a giant spider web. The spider was dragging Smith on the floor, climbing a wall and getting into a ventilation shaft. Smith realized that if he was going to be dragged into that vent, he was going to die. He quickly unclipped his vest and crawled away from the vent shaft. It wasn't until the vest was in the shaft that Vincent screamed, "No!" realizing that the master key was in his vest pocket. He picked up his gun, which he dropped earlier, off the floor and in disappointment headed for a double door, which seemed to be the only exit out of the imitation jungle.

Barry and Nick were following the right path of the 'T' split. Barry knew that he had to lead because Nick was less experienced with a gun and on the battlefield in general. Behind the door at the end of the hall was another curved corridor at the end of which was an open area with three doors. Barry sighed and looked at Nick, "We're going to have to explore all of these somehow. So, what do you say? You want to split up or stick together?" Nick shook his head and shrugged, "We'd be safer together, but we'd be able to cover hell of a lot more ground if we split up," he said, reloading his handgun, "How's about we check different rooms and if any of them branch off even further then we meet up here again?" Barry took a moment and said, "Alright, works for me." Barry motioned for nick to take the middle door, while he went into the left one. Raising his gun, he cautiously, but quickly opened the first door, then stepped back and pointed his gun, it seemed clear enough, but it was too dark to see what was inside. Barry turned on his flashlight and proceeded inside. The light switch was on the wall beside him, he flicked it and the fluorescent lights illuminated a room that looked like the resting quarters. The room had a couch, a table, vending machines for pop and snacks and a TV, with a VCR. As Barry walked forward he noticed that a corpse lay in the corner beside the couch. He looked back at the doorway and yelled, "Nick! It looks like some sort of resting quarters, doesn't look like there's anything important here, but if you're thirsty you might want to check out the vending machines!" Barry moved the couch so that it obscured the corpse from sight. Oddly enough, the dead man was killed by a bullet, not by the T-Virus guinea pigs.

"I'll pass!" Barry heard from the other room. Barry searched the room further, examining the table. On it were some news papers, a few empty cans of pop, a pack of cigarettes, and a lighter. Barry picked up the lighter just in case.

Suddenly, Barry heard three gunshots from outside, but just as he was about to leave the corpse behind the couch got up and headed for Barry.

_Whoever shot him, should have aimed for the head,_ he thought. Barry raised his Magnum and fired a fresh shot at the zombie's head. The head popped with a sensational splatter and incredibly unbearable stench. Barry's stomach turned, _Now I'm not thirsty anymore!_

He ran outside pointing his gun at the first moving thing he saw, but since it was only Nick, Barry raised his gun pointing it up, then noticed a dead pile of flesh and blood on the ground. Barry sighed with relief, "Good work, Andrews. If there's nothing of interest in that room, let's check out the last one."

The two proceeded into the last door which led to another corridor at the end of which was another elevator, "This must lead further down," Barry said, then pushed the call button. The elevator arrived shortly. Barry and Nick were now on the third basement of the lab, another corridor wit ha few more doors this time.

"Well, let's keep going," Barry said.


	5. FOUR

Gwen Ascot was an RD worker at the upper levels of the labs. She worked on the more theoretical research, rather than 'the other stuff.' Before the incident, she had developed a wall of willful blindness, that is, all she did was paperwork and raw virus packaging and transporting, but she still did not want to admit to herself the kind of research that was happening in the White Umbrella part of the corporation, especially the lower levels. The truth was that the money had overridden her conscience. She knew about the genetic research and did not support it, but she forced herself to ignore the horrible facts, but she couldn't anymore. Even if she wanted to, the results of her own experiments were now walking around looking to eat their own creators. She did not want to become like the rest of them, she was not present when the accident happened, she wasn't even sure what exactly happened, but it did not matter anymore. All that mattered is survival. She's been on the run ever since it happened, she did not have much food or water, but she managed to get by, luckily she had managed to pick up a handgun from a dead security guard. Being underground, she had lost track of time too, so she did not know how long it had been since the incident. She was in the cafeteria looking for food when the chef came shuffling towards her, "H-help m-me," he choked on every word, blood stains on his white shirt, his skin pale as death, "S-so h-hungry, s-so itchy. H-help m-me, please!"

"I can't help you," she said in a soft voice, gripping her gun tightly, she was afraid to shoot him, he was still conscious, but she knew what was coming. The chef shook his head, and then back and at Gwen. She looked over his shoulder, seven more undead banging at the cafeteria window, just two feet away from the open door that the chef forgot to close as he came in.

"Shit," Gwen said as she pointed her gun at the dying man, "Don't come any closer! I'm sorry, but this is the only way I can help you." Pulling the trigger, the gun hit with recoil, causing her arms to jerk upward. She quickly recovered from the shot and gazed at the dead chef, his brain leaking out of his head, chunks of blood scattered all over the floor.

_He was already dead, yet still conscious, what a horrible experience,_ she thought. When she noticed that the rest of the undead had found the way in. She pointed her gun, but was dumbfounded by the fact that there were seven of them, and she used to know all of them. She just could not fire a gun at some of her closest friends. She had to make friends since she barely ever left the laboratory. One day every two weeks was all they were given. Regardless, seven of her best friends were getting closer and ready to eat her. She fired a shot at one of them and three zombies dropped to the ground, dead. Gwen was confused and not sure what had happened. Then she heard more shots and the rest of them dropped. She raised her gun at her saviors, a man and a woman wearing uniforms.

_Are they Umbrella agents? No. Those uniforms. They're S.T.A.R.S.? What are S.T.A.R.S. doing here?_

Too many questions came up, the only way to get answers was to ask, "Who are- You're S.T.A.R.S., correct?"

"Come on," the female S.T.A.R.S. member said, "It's not safe anywhere."

"What's your name?" the male asked, "You worked here, right?"

"Gwen, Gwen ascot," the Scientist answered, "Y-yeah, I work here."

Just then, the female S.T.A.R.S. member started walking away, motioning for the others to follow. As they waked, the conversation continued, Gwen found out their names and why they were there, then a question came up which she hoped she wouldn't have to answer, but knew that she would.

"How did this accident happen?" Michael asked as they walked the halls of the laboratory.

"I," Gwen paused, "I don't know," she lied, "I wasn't around when it happened." The truth was that Gwen knew exactly what happened. Two weeks ago she was having lunch with the security operative named Mark Lockend, who was assigned to live and guard the house on the surface. He secretly told her that he was against what Umbrella does and that he spoke to one of the employees at the main Umbrella headquarters who was a part of the resistance against umbrella. Mark was going to get away from the company by revealing crucial evidence against Umbrella, but he needed Gwen to help him enter the lab. She did not know his true intentions at the time, but it turned out that he was going to reveal the evidence by infecting the entire lab. She was there when he injected the virus into a lab rat and let it run loose. However, when they were discovered, Gwen pretended to try and stop Mark and what he was doing. He broke away eventually, but now Umbrella perceived Gwen to be on their side, and would not allow her to leave the lab. That did not matter, though. The rat infected five people the first day. Then, like a true disease, the virus spread through the lab and before long, everyone was infected, except a lucky few. At least it was not airborne. However, Gwen never found out what happened to Mark. But it did not matter now. She did not feel safe revealing the truth to the S.T.A.R.S. As they opened the door, Gwen saw a few familiar uniforms, though she did not know whether that was a good or a bad thing.

After exiting the jungle set, Smith proceeded along the halls of what was now basement three. He passed a janitor's closet and a power room and now faced a door which would probably lead to another corridor, hopefully with something more useful than brooms and fuses. As he pulled the door handle, one thing came to mind, _This must be your unlucky day, Smith. First, you are forced into an underground lab by a pack of zombies, then you get attacked by a giant spider and lose your key to exit and now you face a locked door._ That was the sad truth, the door would not open. There was a cardkey terminal to the right, but since Smith lost the Master Keycard, he was trapped. He decided to investigate the power room just in case he missed something. But there was nothing. A couple of loose fuses lying around, a table with food leftovers on it, an empty mini-fridge, and a cot. Smith figured that they needed someone to be at the power room at all times to make sure nothing goes wrong with the power. He walked up to the switchboard, it seemed like the switchboard controlled the power for this floor only, meaning that there were probably other power rooms on the rest of the floors. A small warning sign was on the switch board,

WARNING: Turning off the power in any of the areas will unlock all electronic doors to unlock. It will also—

The sign was ripped off at that point, but if it meant that doors would be unlocked, then Smith would gladly turn off the power, at least for this area. However, Smith faced another problem. All switches were marked with some kinds of different codes such as A1, B1, B2, and so on. Therefore, Smith had no choice but to flick them at random until the lights went out in the power room. He flicked a few switches back and forth until the room dimmed and lit up in blue.

"Bingo," he said. Then picked up his gun and ran for what used to be a closed door. He pulled the door handle and it opened up easily, giving Smith a big smile on his face.

Bruce backtracked to the Testing Room D in order to keep surveillance over the lab. He hacked into the system and linked the main computer to the on in the testing lab so that he has clearance to everything. He watched the S.T.A.R.S. enter the lab and split up. Suddenly, with an annoying sound a warning message popped up on the computer. It said, "Warning, certain areas of the lab are losing power. Specimen preservation is impossible, all specimens will be released."

"No!" Bruce screamed. Back when this lab had just opened up, the system was set up so that the specimens, still in development would die off in a power outage. Therefore they would be released. However, it had never happened, so they did not bother changing the system when the specimens were in their advanced stages and fully capable Bio Weapons will now be released. Suddenly, the lights went out.

"Aw… Shit…" Bruce said, as he heard the sound of water draining, then a hum of a capsule being opened. The emergency lights kicked in, the room was glowing red. Bruce caught a glimpse of the Gamma Hunter staring at him, he raised his gun, but the Hunter leaped at him and jabbed him in the stomach. Bruce bent over in pain, hearing the Hunter's high pitch growl, almost sounding like a hiss at the same time. All Bruce saw next was black as the hunter swallowed him whole.

As he opened his eyes, James Cartwright looked around the room he was in. Flashbacks took over his brain. He was a security operative for Umbrella. Then, something happened. In a small office he was talking to a man with dark hair, wearing a lab coat.

"Your DNA has incredible potential," said the scientist whose name James could not remember anymore, "We have decided that you would be a great asset to Umbrella if we… 'Use' you for our experiments."

"You've got to be kidding me! I refuse!" James answered.

"It is very important," said the scientist, "Only one in a million people have the DNA suitable for this particular experiment. I was hoping to get your co-operation. The best part is that you would get a promotion to a full time agent."

"I've seen your experiments! I don't want to take any part in them, even if it means a promotion!"

"Too bad," the scientist said with a smile. Then, all James could remember was a man hitting him.

Now, he was awake, he was wet, but did not feel cold. He stood in a large experimentation room, red lights illuminated the room. He stepped down from the platform that he was standing on. He was barefoot, he felt the hard, metallic floor below him, but it did not feel cold. He looked down at his large feet and it startled him. He looked down at himself, a large creature with powerful muscles and giant claws on his arms, made them look like large spiked clubs rather than arms.

"What… What am I?" He said, his voice was now different, it was hoarse and deep.

He noticed a file cabinet standing against a wall. James smashed it open and picked up a document titled 'Superman.'

In constant observations of tyrant battles the low intelligence of 'Tyrant' had led to its demise. We have been doing massive research on how to improve Tyrants' effect in battle. By studying the effects of T-Veronica Virus on Alexia we decided to attempt the same hibernation process on a potential Tyrant…

…The tyrant's progress is not as successful as that of T-Veronica Virus. However we suspect that the subject codenamed 'Superman' will retain its intelligence…

…Next step is the brainwashing and programming. We must make sure that the subject will be intelligent, but will obey out commands and never rebel. We will continue the hibernation process until 2004, and then the brainwashing will begin…

"Am… Am I the Superman?" James asked himself. _They transformed me into… Into this! Umbrella will pay. All of them! None will survive!_

The Superman roared in anger and smashed the wall, making a giant dent in it.


	6. FIVE

Dr. Grace Hendrix was a scientist whose job was to observe the effects of the T-Virus on various organisms. She had sandy-white hair worn in a loose bun secured by a pencil. She was now in one of the locker rooms on basement three floor, inside a locker looking at the horrible effects of the virus on a human being. The human, at this point, had transformed into something truly horrible. Like a human, the creature had two arms and two legs and it walked on all fours. Its limbs ended in giant claws that looked powerful enough to slice a human in half. It did not look like it had skin. It was covered in muscle and its shoulder blades were outside. A huge, partially exposed brain looked like it overlapped the eyes, or perhaps what was left of the eyes were the two dark slits just below where the brain ended, other than that, all that was visible on the face was its mouth. A squared off jaw with sharp jagged teeth. The worst part was the two-meter long, lance like tongue. The creature was slowly creeping towards Grace, its claws clicking against the floor. It screeched and snapped its tongue at the locker, almost piercing Grace's abdomen. This left the locker broken and the door swung open, exposing Grace to immediate death, and since she wasn't carrying a weapon, she had no way of defending herself. The creature had turned its head towards her. Whether it could see her somehow or whether it smelled her, the creature knew that she was there. She had no choice but to scream, the creature screeched as well and then jabbed her in the shoulder with its tongue. Just then, the door to the locker room slammed open and a middle aged man with a beard, wearing a tactical vest and holding a large handgun aimed it at the creature and shot it in the spine. The creature screeched and struggled for life moving its limbs in random directions for about seven seconds, then it slowed down and did not move anymore.

"God damn!" the man said, "Never seen one of these before."

Still in partial shock, Grace looked at the man and asked, "Who... Who are you?"

"Barry Burton," he said. "I'm here with S.T.A.R.S.," he held out his left hand.

"S.T.A.R.S.?" Grace asked, "What are _you_ doing here?" She took Barry's hand and he helped her get up.

"We're here to collect evidence against Umbrella and to destroy this lab," Barry said checking his gun. Grace went pale. Was he a friend or foe? "If you co-operate, we won't hurt you," he said.

"Fine," Grace said, "I guess I have no choice."

The two of them exited the locker room and started walking when Barry suddenly stopped, "Is there a P.A. system somewhere? My comrades and I got separated and I need to update them on things."

"There's a communications room on this floor, if the P.A. still works you can try and use that," Grace answered and motioned Barry to follow her.

Smith walked the halls of third basement when from behind a corner jumped out the ugliest creature yet. It was about the size of an adult human, but slouching over it was up to about Smith's chest. It was green and covered in scales like a lizard, but it was too bulky to be one. Its mouth was about the size of a lion's, its teeth were sticking out, and all of them were fangs like it was not meant to eat, but tear apart its victims. Its legs were also bent adding to its lack of height. Its arms were long, almost reaching the floor. That included the four inch claws at the end of its three fingers. The creature's hoarse screech pierced Smith's ears, and paralyzed him at the same time. He was damn scared. The creature jumped at him, extending its claw, but to Smith's luck he was so scared that he fell back and the creature missed him completely. He drew his gun and rolled onto one knee, pointing his gun at the creature, he fired. _Bam-bam-bam-_ The .357 shots barely phased the creature's back. It fell forward, but simply because if the pistol's stopping power. The creature quickly got up and screeched, jumping towards Smith, turning around in the air, its claw heading right for his neck. Smith fired another shot, the creature fell back screeching and pounding at the floor as the blood leaked out of it. It stopped moving. Smith took a deep breath. His chamber was empty now, he loaded another six bullets into his King Cobra and got up, realizing now that because of his fall off the catwalk, his arm was bruised and it hurt. Smith remembered those lucky pain killers he found in the monitor room and popped a couple, hoping that they were non drowsy. He kept walking down the corridor, occasionally looking back at the green monstrosity, which lay on the floor not moving. At the end of the hall, Smith reached a door. He opened it and pointed his gun at a man-sized figure standing in the doorway, nearly letting the gun fire.

"Shit! Don't shoot!" Familiar voice yelled. Realizing that it was Nick, Smith pointed his gun up, "Nick! You're okay. Where's Barry?"

"I don't know, we got separated, where's Jerry and Mike?" Nick asked.

"Separated," Smith said, imitating Nick's tone of voice, "Good to see you're okay."

"Yeah, same here, what happened to your– ," Nick was saying when suddenly, the vent at Smith's feet slammed open and a pink, rope like tentacle wrapped around his leg and pulled him into the vent as he screamed, "Shit!" The creature, whatever it was, growled loudly as it pulled him deeper and deeper into the vent. He pointed his gun downward towards his feet and not caring about the consequences, fired away, shot after shot until the creature screeched loudly and its tentacle loosened. Just then, the vent crashed through and Smith and the creature both fell onto another cold floor. That was when Smith realized that it was not a tentacle that was holding him but the creature's tongue. The red, skinned creature lay on the floor still, with bullet holes in its partially exposed brain. The grip may have loosened, but it kept its hold on Smith. That's when he took out his combat knife and cut it off, letting his foot free.

Suddenly, another creature fell through the ceiling vent. It was only Nick.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Smith asked.

"I wasn't going to explore the place by myself, so I followed. Where are we?" Nick inquired.

"Well," Smith said, "Basement four, I assume. Let's check it out."

Barry walked the halls of the lab, with Grace following him. He didn't much like her, but she was his key through the lab.

"Shit," she stopped, looking at the red light that illuminated the room, "Some idiot turned off the power! All the specimens are running loose now!"

Barry raised his gun, "Let me and my buddy handle it," he said with confidence, "I'm pretty sure that I know what I'm facing."

"Oh yeah," Grace said, "How?"

"Did you hear about the Spencer Estate incident five years ago? I was there," he said. Grace's facial expression was priceless. She looked shocked and Barry liked that, he wanted to establish the fact that he was in charge and that her bitchy attitude wasn't getting her anywhere. He wanted to show that he had more control of the whole situation than she did. Barry proceeded forward, turning a corner and pointing his gun. Nothing. He proceeded to the next hall. There were four doors on the sides.

"Testing Rooms A through D," Grace said, "That's where we researched the four types of hunters."

"Four types?" Barry asked.

"Yes, four: Ma-120 the Alpha Hunter, Ma-121 the Beta Hunter, Ma-124 the Gamma Hunter, and Ma-125 the Omega Hunter."

"The Omega Hunter?" Barry asked, "I've heard of the other three, but what's the Omega Hunter?"

"It is a hunter that has the potential strength and speed of a Tyrant, the newest breakthrough in White Umbrella research," Grace said "However, the specimen had died, too unstable. Now that I think about it, I guess it was a blessing in disguise," she added as a high pitch croak of a frog filled the room. A Gamma Hunter had approached them quietly while they were talking and now it had used its trademark move, the pre-finisher jab. Grace slumped over with pain in her stomach. The hunter was about to eat her, when Barry pointed his colt python at it and blasted in on the mouth, tearing the creature's large head apart.

Grace coughed, catching her breath, she said, "Thanks."

"Come on, let's get past this corridor before any more of them attack us," Barry said and the two proceeded into the next hall. As the walked, Barry noticed a slight tremor. He heard the loud footsteps somewhere very close. As the door opened, Barry gazed upon what was obviously a Tyrant. Barry raised his Magnum, knowing that even this extremely powerful gun was not enough to take out a Tyrant.

"Umbrella," the Tyrant roared as it gazed upon Grace. It headed toward her, Barry unloaded a chamber into it, while screaming, "Get the hell out of here!"

Grace looked down and seemingly crawled into an open vent, after that, she was gone. Barry decided not to waste anymore time and ran back towards the elevator to basement two, not bothering to look back.

The minute they landed, the G.R.U.N.T. team's mission went to hell. They were attacked by the victims of the cannibal disease. Two of Kell's men were killed instantly and one injured. By the time, the victims were put down, it was only Kell, Jacobs and Phillips left. James Brundel, another one of the members was badly injured, but Kell made sure t camouflage him in some bushes, with promises of return. The three Umbrella soldiers infiltrated the house and instantly found the secret passage inside the fake refrigerator. It was a lot quieter after that. However, the evidence of tampering was obvious. The entrance to the lab was not locked like stated in the briefing, and Kell did not need to hack the system to enter. That was not a bad thing though. Kell walked the halls of basement two, Jacobs and Phillips followed. As Kell met a T-junction and a door in the middle of it, the door opened. Three people came out, two of them were the terrorists that had raided this lab and they were holding a hostage. Kell raised his MP5, his men did the same.

"Hold it! Don't fuckin' move!" Kell yelled at the two members disguised as S.T.A.R.S. "Get the hell away from her!"

"What's going on?" the Umbrella worker pleaded.

"They are terrorists disguised as S.T.A.R.S. We have been sent in to exterminate the threat," Kell said, looking at the terrorists' faces, both looking at him with smug sarcasm, "What? Any comments from the peanut gallery?"

"Well, maybe," said the boyish female, "What makes you think we're terrorists?"

"You were holding a hostage!" Kell said loudly.

"We saved her damn life!" the female argued.

"Yeah?" Kell said angrily, "What about the virus that spread because of you people?"

"The virus was created and researched by Umbrella!" The persistent bitch said.

"Umbrella was searching for a cure! That's the only reason the virus was _in_ this lab!" Kell argued.

"You are so gullible! I can't believe that you believe them!" she said, Kell was getting sick of her attitude.

"Don't get smart with me, miss! We can kill both of you right now." Kell responded.

"Gwen," the male terrorist said, "Tell them."

The female Umbrella worker spoke up, "It's true," she said.

"Brainwashed," Kell said, "It was to be expected. I don't know what kinds of tricks you used on her, but they won't work on us."

Now, the male looked at Kell and let out a sigh of laughter, "I can't believe you bought that shit! We're only here to destroy the lab to prevent contamination."

"Good excuse," said Kell, "But we are going to be taking over from here on. We are to find the survivors and to kill the terrorists. But, if you help us find more survivors, I just might let you live. You might be lucky enough to spend the rest of your useless days in prison." Kell and his team led the S.T.A.R.S. members to what according to the map was the elevator to basement three. As they descended, Kell saw another terrorist running for the elevator, stopping at the sight of the Umbrella operatives.

"Hold it," Kell said, "Don't move, you're coming with us!"

"There's no time, we got to go up!" the middle aged man said.

"And why is that?" Kell asked skeptically.

"The tyrant is after me! It's going to kill us all!" the man said.

"What's a–," Kell was interrupted by massive footsteps at the end of the corridor, "Shit."

"Come on!" the middle aged man said as the six of them went back up the stairs in the elevator.

"What the hell is that?" Kell asked Barry.

"It was a tyrant! Umbrella's biggest project," the man said, still trying to pin the fault on Umbrella.

"Don't give me that bullshit!" Kell said, "Whatever it was, I know you released it!"

"What are you–," Barry said, but was interrupted by Jerrika.

"Forget it," she said. "These guys are naive and gullible. They think we're terrorists."

The elevator stopped and the door opened up to basement two. Kell had led the three terrorist prisoners to look for another way down. They now faced a catwalk with broken glass, giving access to the bottom floor.

"Alright," Kell said, "The terrorists will descend first, then us, then Gwen."

Kell, not caring about the terrorists, pushed them down the catwalk, the three fell on their feet, stumbling and falling over.

"Keep your guns on them," Kell said, "I'll go down first."


	7. SIX

Walter had entered the laboratory way before Kell and the rest of the G.R.U.N.T. team. It's not that he abandoned his team. He knew that Kell could take care of the team, but Walter needed to take care of a few things first. He needed to erase the computer files to make sure that Kell and the others did not find out the truth about Umbrella and S.T.A.R.S. Walter ran up to the house and entered the lab a lot quicker than the rest. He was now in a control room on Basement three. It was a computer room from which Walter had the control over the whole lab. He had to hack the system for passwords, but it was not a big problem for Walter. He now looked at three different camera views of the fake jungle. It seemed like Kell was pushing the S.T.A.R.S. down.

_Well, that's interesting,_ Walter thought, _Kell must want to trap the S.T.A.R.S. down there. Well, I have something better in store for them. I love killing two birds with one stone. This way I'll kill the S.T.A.R.S. and get combat data at the same time!_

Walter closed the camera windows and opened up the testing program.

"Choose your testing subject type," the computer screen said. Walter typed in, "MA-120."

"Alpha hunters prepared. How many would you like to deploy?"

Just to make sure that the S.T.A.R.S. would be eliminated, Walter typed in "4" and pressed enter.

"Now deploying… Four… Alpha Hunters," the computer said as Walter quickly switched the windows and focused on the cameras again.

"What the hell?" Walter screamed out loud. Kell and his team were now down in the jungle along with the S.T.A.R.S. They were supposed to trap the S.T.A.R.S., not follow them into that hell pit! Walter ran out of the room and headed for the elevator to basement two, but was stopped by a large giant.

"No! They released it?" Walter said as he looked upon the most powerful specimen of this lab, the Superman. According to Walter, the creature was not yet brainwashed and was potentially dangerous to anyone who crossed its path. Walter had no choice. He turned around and ran for the elevator that would lead down to basement four. He had no choice but to hope that his team members would survive.

Walter descended the elevator hearing the angry roars of Superman. He took out his digital map of the basement four layout and immediately headed for the shortest path to the elevator, which would bypass all the corridors, all he had to do was travel through a secret passage build for convenience while the rest of the lab was being built. It was blocked off by some concrete after the construction was complete, but it was still hollow and nothing a little C4 couldn't handle. Walter had traveled quickly through the forgotten corridor, it reeked of mold and tree roots have made their way into it, not to mention the large amount of insects. In other words, it was not pleasant at all, but Walter was thankful that none of the insects have grown to titanic proportions, at least not yet. Before long, Walter was already descending the elevator down to basement five. Every floor had an abandoned corridor like that, but Walter had no information on where the others were, not to mention the fact that he had no C4 left. He wound up in the living quarters, where people slept, there were many rooms for all the lab personnel, the rooms, however, were very crammed. They had two small bunk beds and little room for anything else. Walter did not care. He decided to take a small break, sitting down on one of the beds.

The fact that Jerry was pushed off the catwalk had really pissed her off. She swore under her nose as she got up after the fall, then saw as the leader of the three-man army had descended carefully down. The other two followed, and then Gwen, who of course got help from the Umbrella grunts. It Jerry was even angrier that Gwen did not seem to persist with the fact that she was telling the truth, but who was Jerry to complain? They were all from the same employer after all. She should have known that Gwen was going to pick Umbrella over S.T.A.R.S.

A sound of metal gears turning came from a distance, followed by an awful hoarse screech. Jerry was surprised and scared at the same time. Suddenly, four large, green gremlins came running. Jerry raised her gun, but somehow, for the first time in her life, she felt like a handgun was too weak of a weapon to kill something. She wasn't mistaken. She managed to fire three shots before one of the large gremlins jumped for Jerry and attempted to take her head off. Jerry side-stepped, but was knocked down by the large creature. The pushed its face away with her left hand while pumping the creature full of bullets with her right. Everything seemed to slow down and speed up at the same time in that one instant. Gun shots and screams were heard, Jerry struggled to push the gremlin off her. Then, like a sting of a hundred bees, the sharp pain in Jerry's arm had taken the best of her, making her scream out loud. Suddenly, with a loud bang, there was no more pressure on her stomach, the gremlin was gone. Jerry lay on the floor breathing heavily, looking at her bleeding hand.

Barry walked up to her and extended his hand, "Are you hurt?" he asked. Jerry did not take his hand, instead, she managed to get up by herself feeling incredible pain in her chest like a rib was broken, "I'm fine," she said. She noticed Gwen looking at her hand with great burden on her face.

"What?" Jerry asked.

"Your hand," Gwen said in a shaky voice, "There's a nine out of ten chance that you are now a carrier of the virus."

"Good," the annoying voice of an arrogant Umbrella soldier had pierced its way through Jerry's shock, "You guys released it, now enjoy the consequences."

"Alright, that's it, I'm going to kill you, you son of a–" Jerry was saying as she got interrupted by Barry.

"Wait a minute! Infected? Isn't' there a cure?"

"I don't know," Gwen said quietly, looking partially down and into space, "I don't know if we have any in this lab."

"What does that mean?" Gwen demanded, "What the hell's going to happen to me?"

"It's going to be okay," Barry said, "There's _got_ to be a cure! We'll find it and everything is going to be okay."

"Alright," the voice of that Umbrella bastard broke the conversation again, "Enough of this mushy bullshit, we're moving on, and if your friend shows any signs of infection, I'll pull the trigger myself."

Jerry was getting so sick of his remarks that she was ready to snap his neck, any second now, she took a deep breath and said, "Just shut… The hell… _Up!_" However, she couldn't do anything else, after all, she was at gun point.

Nick and Smith were in a small medical room on basement four. Smith was looking through the medical cabinets for some other things that may prove to be useful. Nick sat on a cot, looking down at his gun.

"That's a nasty bruise you got, Smith, What happened?"

"I fell," Smith said, but Nick didn't want to believe that, he always used that excuse when get to beat up earlier in life.

"Really? Must've been a big fall," said Nick, hoping to get the truth out of Smith.

"Yeah," he said, "When a giant spider pulls you off a catwalk twenty feet high, you tend to bruise a little."

"I see," Nick said, deciding to change the subject, "Smith, I'm… I'm sorry."

"For?" Smith asked, looking back at Nick.

"I just… I wish I was a better asset to the team, you know. I mean, I broke the damn laptop, our only way out."

"Don't worry about it," Smith said, "Shit happens, can't blame yourself for it, Nick. I need a soldier, not a glutton for guilt."

The door slowly opened, both Nick and Smith aimed their guns at the door, only discovering that a survivor stumbled into the room. It looked like one of the lab personnel. She raised her hands and in an angry voice said, "Watch where you point that thing!" Both, Nick and Smith lowered their guns, "Who are you?" Smith asked.

"My name is Dr. Grace Hendrix. I worked here," she said with an annoyed look in her eyes. She stumbled to the cot and sat down, "I think I twisted or broke my ankle."

"Well, I'm not a medical expert," Smith said, "Any ideas as to what we should do, Nick?"

"I don't know. If only we had Nancy here," Nick said, and then stopped. He thought about how two of their comrades had died. It didn't hit him earlier, but now he realized that he would never talk to either Nancy or Dallas. He would not ever hear their voices, never hear them argue, joke around or get angry. It was still too hard to bear for Nick, he decided to put his grief aside for now and concentrate on the mission, or what's left of it. Dr. Hendrix stood up and walked over to one of the medical cabinets, slightly pushing Smith out of the way, "I can take care of myself," she said.

"Dr. Hendrix," Smith spoke up, "We'll need you to help us clear through the lab. I assume that clearance only gets tighter from here."

"Why should I help you?" Dr. Hendrix asked with an annoyed tone of voice, "I don't need a couple of trigger happy cops to follow me around everywhere." Finally, Nick decided to speak up instead of letting Smith speak for both of them, "Oh, and what would you prefer? Getting eaten alive by your former co-workers? They're still out there you know!" Dr. Hendrix sighed and staggered over to the door, "Then we should leave now," she said.

"Are you alright?" Smith asked her, "I got heavy duty pain killers here if you want."

"Fine, Give me a couple," Gwen said as she extended her hand. Smith threw her the bottle of the pain killers. The three of them left the medical room and started advancing further into the depths of basement four.


	8. SEVEN

As Grace traveled with the two S.T.A.R.S. members, she couldn't do anything but stand back and watch the two men do all the fighting. The man who was called Smith had a big pistol which Gwen couldn't even dream of handling. It looked like it would shatter her wrists just by firing it once. She realized at that point how weak she was and that she really did rely on some offensive help to get her out safe. She still wished that some help from the headquarters would come instead of a team of vigilante S.T.A.R.S. They missed a lot of rooms on basement four, but Grace was leading them directly to the elevator to basement five. They had stumbled upon a catwalk, but it looked more like an unfinished corridor with support railings. However, Umbrella was not going to make and adjustments to it. Below was a dark and hollow pit that one would not consider falling into. Even Grace did not know what was down there.

"Past this walkway, is the elevator leading to basement five, I think. Wait right here," she said as she walked to the end of the walkway and slid her ID card through the terminal and typed in a password, with a high pitched beep, the door unlocked as she entered and closed it immediately, once again locking it. Loud knocks, like metal against metal, were heard. Grace ignored them she managed to ditch the S.T.A.R.S. She would not need them for much longer, she had her own way of neutralizing the threat. She walked over to one of the room in the corridor that followed and entered a room with a big computer terminal that said, 'Temperature Control' on it. Grace typed in a few keys and entered the desired temperature: twenty degrees below zero. She had to move fast, being at a temperature that low would freeze her too. She needed to get to basement seven where they had their own temperature terminal. Out the door and down the hall was the elevator to basement five. She ran towards it and descended down to the living quarters, where she could pick up a warm coat.

Walter exited the room in the living quarters on basement five. He was prepared to face anything at that point, gun reloaded, and thoughts gathered. Walter was ready to carry out the mission, when he heard something shuffling down the hall. Walter prepared his MP5 and aimed it in the direction of the sound. A few seconds later, he saw a person in a lab coat, shuffling towards him. The person stopped and raised her hand. Walter could see now that it was a woman.

"Don't… Shoot me…" she said. Walter lowered his gun and walked up to her, "Are you infected?"

"No," she replied, "I shouldn't be. Who are you?"

"I am from the G.R.U.N.T. team sent in by Umbrella to rescue any survivors and eliminate the terrorists who claim to be S.T.A.R.S." Walter turned around and walked away from her, "Are you coming with me?"

"Yes!" the woman answered, "I barely managed to escape from those damn terrorists!" The woman's plea for help seemed real enough, but Walter knew that the S.T.A.R.S. were not really terrorists. Whatever the case, he decided to take her along in case he needed access to an area where he had no clearance. Still, Walter felt no need to show any compassion, he was a soldier and had to fulfill his mission, "Fine, Then follow me."

"Wait, I wanted to freeze all the loose infected victims so I turned down the temperature. I was wondering if I could get a coat from my dorm room if possible."

"If you must, but I would rather leave as soon as possible."

"Thank you, my name is Grace Hendrix, by the way," she said.

"Walter," he answered, "Please, don't take your time."

It took about five minutes for Grace to find her coat. The two got on the move immediately. Grace seemed to have pretty high access, but Walter assumed that it was because of the accident, that way any and all uninfected personnel would be able to escape. Walter helped Grace walk because of her seemingly broken ankle. As he walked down a hall passing by one of the rooms, multiple scratches and moans could be heard from behind the door. There must have been at least five carriers in the room, possibly more. He noticed that some caring individual had blocked the door with two pipes: one preventing the door handle from turning, and the other preventing the door from being pushed open, as it was wedged between the door and the parallel wall. Before the two left the hall, Walter turned around, took out his handgun and aimed carefully at one of the pipes. With a careful shot, the pipe was blown away, followed by another shot, removing the second pipe leaving the door unprotected.

"If our terrorists should follow us, we won't make it easy for them."

The two moved on until they reached the elevator to basement six. Remembering the mission briefing, that was where one of their most important experiments were being held. With Superman already on the loose upstairs, Walter had no doubt that any surviving S.T.A.R.S. would fall victim to it. However, he could not take the risk, Walter decided to release the second project of the lab. A bit outdated, but still a useful killing machine, the T-103 would soon be awakened.

The three Umbrella grunts have been leading the S.T.A.R.S. at gun point for a while and Mike was getting tired of it. They passed a power room, a big lab with a giant open capsule and many other testing rooms, various tremors could be heard, Mike hoped that the lab was not blowing up just yet. The occasional undead was not a problem for the Umbrella grunts with sub-machine guns, and that meant that S.T.A.R.S. would not be a problem either. Mike decided to keep his gun holstered and do what the assholes told him to. Gwen seemed like the only member of the neutral party, but Mike still did not like the face that she did not support the S.T.A.R.S. After all, they saved her life. By the time they reached the fourth floor, Mike noticed a significant change in temperature. He could almost see his breath, something happened, it was cold. He noticed that the masked Umbrella grunts have been wiping their helmets. They were getting fogged up, Mike could see Barry getting impatient, but he did not know why. Not long after, the group stopped. The leader, Kell said, "This is getting ridiculous, we got to take our helmets off." As the three men took their helmets off, Barry took out both of his guns and pointed them at the heads of the two subordinate Umbrella grunts. As the three took their helmets off, Kell grasped his machine gun and yelled, "What the hell are you doing? You have a death wish, old man?" The truth was that Kell and the others were no older than Jerrika. All three of them looked younger than Mike and that got him even angrier. How could he let himself be bossed around by a group of punks? However, it looked like Barry had decided to take initiative. Mike took out his gun and pointed it at Kell. Jerry stood there, her hand was tied up to prevent bleeding, was she really infected?

"Would you risk losing your men, Kell? Are the Umbrella soldiers as cold hearted as their executives?" Barry demanded, "If that's the case, then go ahead, and spend the rest of your mission alone. Even _you_ won't be able to fend off against _all_ of the 'hell spawns' in this lab alone."

"What do you want?" Kell demanded.

"Drop your MP5s and go upstairs on the elevator. From there, do what you will. I suggest using your sidearms to survive as you manage your way back into the house and out of here. If you decide to descend back down, don't do it for five minutes. Don't think of catching up with us," Barry said, "I don't like to kill, but to defend myself and the team, I'll do it."

As Kell, discouraged, dropped his MP5 and headed for the elevator. His men did the same. Mike decided to add his two cents, "By the way, we're _not_ terrorists!"

Kell said nothing, just walked away. His men followed. The elevator ascended and a quiet hush filled the room.

"Are you okay?" Mike asked Jerry, she was sweating and not really moving.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm okay. Just not feeling too good."

"Is it the virus?" Mike asked.

"It shouldn't be," Gwen said. Mike didn't pay attention to what happened to her until now. She was still in the room, "If jerry was dead, the virus would react right away, but because she's still alive, it shouldn't affect her for about a week."

"What's going to happen?" Jerry asked. A look of fear projected in her eyes.

"According to various observations," Gwen said as the group started walking away, Barry, Mike and Jerry holding the MP5's, although Jerry did not seem too enthusiastic to use it, "For a first couple of days, your skin would feel itchy. Eventually, it will start, to blister and rot, patches falling off eventually. You would feel a lot hungrier during that period. Slowly, you would become less intelligent until you end up feeding on anything. There is no way to determine at what point life ends and death begins."

"That's enough," Barry interrupted loudly, "It won't happen. We find the cure and then we'll get the hell out of here."

Mike felt incredibly sorry for Jerry at that point. It scared him just listening to Gwen's words, but Jerry had to live with knowing that this was going to happen to her if they did not prevent it. Mike swore to himself at that point that if there _was_ a cure, he _would_ find it.


	9. EIGHT

"Some people," Smith said as Nick tried to hack the door open. Nick was busy, trying to open the damn door for twenty minutes, but he would not pass up a chance to express his feelings.

"She's a bitch," Nick said simply, "An ice maiden in need of a good humping, that's all." Smith almost chuckled, then said, "Is it just me or is it getting cold?"

"Yeah," Nick said, "You're right, I wonder what's up."

Another few minutes and the door unlocked with a dull buzz. Nick immediately opened it and the two went through. The hall past the door contained a few doors and an elevator.

"That's our way down," Smith said, "Come on."

Nick figured that they should have inspected the rooms first, but Smith _was_ the Squad Leader. They descended and ended up on basement five. After some exploration, Nick figured that basement five were the dorms, "Living quarters, huh?" he said.

"Let's quickly check for anything that might be useful and move on," Smith said.

Nick was in one of the rooms, two beds, like the rest, he looked under one of the cots, a large duralumin case lay there. Suspicious, Nick pulled it out from underneath the cot and opened the case, inside was a beautiful piece of weaponry. Nick was not an expert, but this was definitely a shotgun. The case contained the weapon and a load of seven shots, Nick figured that Smith would make better use of it, "There's something here that might interest you!" he yelled into the other room.

"What is it?" Smith yelled back. Nick left the room holding the case, walking to where Smith's voice could be heard.

"Hey I got something for _you_ here," Smith said, "You're going to love this!"

Smith entered the room, seeing Smith holding a laptop, "Merry Christmas," he said.

"Merry Christmas to you too," Nick replied, taking the laptop and handing Smith the case.

"What's this?" Smith asked opening it, taking out the large weapon and holding it like a trophy, "This is a work of art. I love it! Cheers, joy and zombies for all!" As he said that, a small tremor occurred, and it started snowing.

"What the hell?" Smith asked, noticing that the ceiling was covered in frost. The whole place was starting to freeze over, "We got to get out of here, before we get frozen solid." Smith picked up a lab coat off the wall and put it on. Hot having a vest anymore, Smith probably felt a bit than Nick did. Regardless of the fact that it was cold, Nick had to check what was on the PC before they left. To his surprise, the room had an internet jack in the wall. He plugged it into the computer and attempted to send out an S.O.S. message.

"Shit, I don't know if it'll work. I hope we're connected," Nick said. After a while, he said, "It's taking its time. Okay we're through," he started typing a message, repeating it out loud, "S.O.S. The Alpha Team of Reno S.T.A.R.S. are trapped in an Umbrella lab. Send a helicopter. Co-ordinates: Forty eight miles, Eighteen degrees east south of Reno. Tahoe forest. Difficult to pinpoint the exact location… Send." It took a full minute until the message was sent. Even then, Nick was not sure if it got through.

"All we got to do now is hope," he said.

"Fine, let's get going. Hopefully the other elevator is not too far off."

Smith led Nick through the halls of basement five. As Smith opened one of the doors which led to another hall, he stumbled back in a surprise.

"Shit."

"What is it," Nick asked.

"Zombies. A lot of them," Smith answered.

As Nick looked over his shoulder, he could see at least eight of them roaming the hall. Smith cocked his shotgun and said, "Stand back."

"Smith, don't be a hero!" Nick pleaded.

"You want to take them on with your Beretta?" Smith inquired.

"Just be careful, man!" Nick said as Smith proceeded into the corridor.

All Nick could do was watch as Smith unloaded shot after shot at the undead carriers. One of the carriers came close enough to lunge for a bite, but Smith was fast enough to duck it out and tackle it in the stomach. The results were not good. The pressure on the stomach of the zombie had caused it to vomit on Smith's back. The smell was so nauseating that it caused Smith to vomit himself. Nick was close to vomiting too, but he did not want to start a chain reaction. So, Smith stood there, covered in vomit, unloading the shotgun on the undead. Not long after, there was silence, except the moans of the incapacitated carriers lying on the ground. Smith was breathing heavily, leaning against the wall.

"Are you okay?" Nick asked.

"Yeah," Smith said barely catching his breath, "I'm fine. Combat high."

"You look like… Like shit, smell like it too."

"Thanks, keeps me nice and warm."

"That's disgusting, I'm about ready to move on. How many shots you got left?" Nick asked as they proceeded out of the hall and into the next one. The recycled air never smelled fresher.

"Zero, I'm out." Smith tossed the shotgun to the side and took out his King Cobra, "Only got five shots in this beast too. But I still got my good ol' Beretta! Lot of damage that going to do." The two kept walking until they reached another elevator.

"Down into the sixth plane of hell we go," Nick said.

Barry had led Jerry, Mike and Gwen through the halls, reaching basement five. They explored the living quarters not finding anything really useful. Barry was worried about Smith and Nick, he felt bad for losing Nick, but they had to move on, so that at least they could get away from Umbrella and reach the self-destruct terminal. The team reached a room in one of the halls. It was dark and did not seem cold. Barry walked into it only finding himself walk on something sticky. The team entered the room, as Barry turned on his flashlight. Looking around the room he said, "Oh shit," as he realized what he was walking in. Spider webs covered the walls, the ceiling and the floor. That is the reason it was dark and warm, the webs had covered up the lights and the vents, isolating the room completely.

"This isn't good," Barry said, "Let's turn back," when suddenly, he was pushed forward the back at incredible speed. He lay on the floor, his vest covered in spider web. He got up slowly, picking up his MP5. He aimed and managed to fire a maximum of five shots at the giant spider before it tackled him, making him hit the wall. Barry did not fall to the floor, but was stuck to the web on the wall. It seemed as though the web on the walls had a lot more adhesive quality than the web on the floor. Barry could not free himself. What's more, he dropped the MP5.

"Shit! Help me out here!" Barry yelled as the giant spider approached him. Shots were heard, an MP5 ripping through the spider. A few seconds after the fire stopped, it started again, this time the pistols were ripping through the spider. Barry acted quickly and unclipped his vest. Taking out the Colt Python out of his shoulder holster that was hanging with the vest, Barry fired at the spider the powerful .44 shots blasted the spider until it did not move anymore. Barry was out of breath because of the adrenaline that pumped through his body. He looked down at the spider, then at the MP5 that lay on the web-filled floor. Barry reached to pick it up, when the flashlight on the gun caught something. Barry walked over to a black object and picked it up. To his surprise, it was a S.T.A.R.S. vest. Smith or Nick must have lost it. Barry's vest was stuck to the wall, so he decided to pick this one up. The vest fit tightly around Barry's thick body, but it was a lot better than not wearing a vest at all. He turned back, and walked over to the rest of the team, noticing that Jerry was leaning against a wall, "Are you alright?" Barry asked.

"Barry," she said, "I can't handle anymore of this shit. You guys go ahead, leave me." Barry laughed and said, "You got to be shittin' me, Jerry."

"No. If you find the cure, feel free to come and help me, but if there isn't one, then what's the point of even continuing."

"I thought the side effects are not supposed to appear until later," Barry said as he turned to Gwen.

"There have also been cases of people slipping into comas, but it's rare," Gwen said.

"Great, I might become a fuckin' vegetable," Jerry said, "Seriously, get the fuck out of here, I'm done."

"Jerry, I am a soldier, and I won't abandon my teammates," Barry said.

"If you're such a big fuckin' soldier, then do it as an honorable soldier to soldier request!"

Barry knew that because of her persistence, Jerry was not going anywhere.

"Jerry," he said, "As soon as we find the cure, we'll be back."

"You have one hour," Jerry said.

"What do you mean?" Mike inquired.

"If you are not back in one hour, I will pull the trigger on myself."

"Jerry, no!" Barry pleaded.

"You have one hour. Get the hell out of here!"

Barry sighed, "Alright, but we _will_ be back."

The Superman, as he now called himself, had walked through the halls of the laboratory. It was hard for him to move around at first, the transformation had left his muscles tight and hard to move around. But the more he walked and stretched his muscles, the easier it was. He had stumbled on a few of the other victims and had to fight them with his giant claws, which was just as hard at first. However, the more of the specimens and victims he smashed, the faster he felt. His arms and legs were now fully mobile and he was able to run through the halls looking for any humans that might roam the lab. The superman felt no pain as one of the uniformed people shot at him. He felt the injuries, saw the holes in his body, but it did not hurt. The man, whoever he was had run off, that was before the Superman had the full use of his legs and as much as he tried to chase the man, he could not at the time. By now, the bullet holes had healed up and the Superman had realized that Umbrella had created a weapon which would end up being their own demise. He vowed that he would annihilate anyone who gets in his way. By now, that not only included Umbrella but all mankind. He knew that he would never be accepted by society. Therefore, in order for him to survive, society would have to die. Starting with the survivors of this lab, the Superman would track anyone down and make sure not to leave them alive. He would make sure not to even let them get up again if the T-Virus had allowed it. Tracing the humans by the smell had led the Superman to basement four. He ended up on a catwalk that was practically a bridge hanging from the ceiling on cables. As the Superman walked across the catwalk, he heard metallic creeks, then a snap. As the cables snapped, the catwalk collapsed making the Superman fall into the darkness. He ended up in a room which looked like it was still under construction. The floor was made of cement and the walls were still carved soil. The door out of the room was shut tightly, but all Superman needed to do was hit it a few times before it was smashed open. He now stood in a corridor just like the others. The question was: How far down did he fall? He stepped into another metal-covered corridor. He could smell humans on this basement level, whatever it was. He followed the smell of his next victims.


	10. NINE

Grace was very happy to find an Umbrella soldier, he would have much rather traveled with someone who was working for Umbrella instead of a rebel group of terrorists. She did not know that the S.T.A.R.S. were terrorists, but she decided to play a damsel in distress in order to guarantee her safety. She followed this Walter guy who claimed to be a Captain of something called G.R.U.N.T. Since the N.T. stood for neutralizing terrorism, Grace figured that the S.T.A.R.S. really were terrorists and that they had no other intentions but to kill any surviving Umbrella members along with destroying the laboratory and Grace was serving as a hostage and their key to the lower levels. Walter said that the situation was a lot worse than first expected and that something drastic had to be done to prevent the S.T.A.R.S. from completing their objective. The 'Weapon' had to be released. Grace saw the Superman earlier, but Walter wanted to release the other one. Grace was afraid of the consequences. She knew that releasing a Tyrant was extremely dangerous, releasing _two_ was just reckless. Grace, however, had no gun. She would not be able to survive without Walter.

The two proceeded through the freezing corridors of basement six until they stood in a large laboratory containing a giant capsule with the T-103 specimen in it. T-103 was Umbrella's most successful Tyrant created to this day, excluding the prototype Superman and the Nemesis Tyrant. However, T-103 was not only an extremely successful B.O.W. but it was relatively easy to make. Umbrella wanted at least one raised in every lab, however there were other labs which mass-produced them. This lab had raised one, but they were trying to make it an even better weapon by adding various genes of animals to increate its reaction time and battle tactics.

There is stood, tall, seemingly proud and extremely dangerous. After pushing a few buttons, Walter stood back and watched as the liquid drained from the capsule. Grace thought it would be a good idea to stand back as well. The liquid drained and the capsule slid open, the Tyrant opened its eyes and looked around.

"We should leave," Walter said, "Now."

"Right," Grace said and the two had exited the corridor. They headed down the corridor to where the elevator to basement six when a large figure walked toward towards them. Grace was horrified to realize what it was. The Superman had somehow made it to the lower basement levels. The two turned back to run the other way when T-103 broke through the door and the two Umbrella employees were trapped in a narrow corridor between two tyrants. It seemed as though there was no escape. Suddenly Walter ran up to the Superman and jammed a knife in its right eye. The creature screamed and leaned against a wall as Walter ran by it. Not long after, the Superman took the knife out and held onto its wound.

"Come on! Hurry!" Walter screamed as Grace realized that she had a clearing. She ran up to run past the Superman as he slammed his right arm against the wall blocking her way. Walter, then, ran for the door.

"Wait! Help me!" Grace screamed.

"Sorry! You're expendable!" Walter screamed.

It was then that grace realized that there was no escape. She was doomed. Umbrella had created these extremely dangerous bio-weapons and now the weapons were extracting revenge. She looked at the Superman as he looked down at her with his one working eye and then the arm with which he was blocking the way started moving.

_Is he letting me go?_ Grace questioned as the arm swung towards her with great speed and strength hitting her body and making her fly back and landing on the floor partially hitting the wall. Slowly, her vision blurred and dimmed. The pain faded away.

The Superman spotted the two humans as soon as he walked in the room. He approached them thinking, _At last. Time to shed some blood that's _not_ clotted._

As the Superman approached the humans who were running away, he was about to start running after them when he noticed another door open. Seemingly another Tyrant had same into the corridor.

_Those humans are not going anywhere,_ the Superman thought, _neither is the other Tyrant._

Without warning, the male human ran towards Superman and stabbed him in the right eye. For the first time since his awakening, the Superman had felt pain. However, this was not a bad thing. It was like a drug. The pain had given the Superman a rush and got his adrenaline pumping. After a few seconds, the pain was not blinding anymore, he did not lose his depth perception. He did not know why, but that did not matter. He pulled the knife out of his eye socket and dropped in on the floor. He saw the other, female human, run, trying to get away. He had to prevent it. He slammed his right hand against the wall blocking her way and noticed that the male human had escaped, but that did not matter, for now. He slowly moved his arm away from the human as she looked at him. Looking down at her he could only see Umbrella, the Satan's spawns who had created what the Superman was. He swung his arm towards her and hit her body watching her fly. As soon as her blood cam in contact with his arm, he felt a bigger rush. He had never felt better in his life. Just then, the other human threw a hand grenade at the Superman. He managed to deflect it and bounce it back at the—now running away—human. The grenade exploded loudly and parts of it hit Superman, but it barely fazed him. The bloodshed that he had caused gave him unbelievable rush, satisfaction and lust for power that he swore that after he dealt with the other Tyrant, he would kill every human left in this lab.

The Superman now looked in the eyes of the other Tyrant. He did not know whether that Tyrant was self aware. He did not care. He ran up to it and slugged it in the stomach. The Tyrant quickly blocked and punched the Superman in the face.

"Quick," the Superman said, "but I'm faster!"

He ran up to the Tyrant and attempted another stomach punch, it blocked. He then followed up to a swing to the side of the head. The Tyrant stumbled and attempted to slash the Superman. The Superman retaliated by blocking that slash and smashing the Tyrant in the, now exposed, side. The Superman stepped back and while the Tyrant was recovering, he thrust kicked it high in the abdomen, just below the ribcage. The Tyrant fell back. At that moment the Superman realized the full potential of his power. Killing a mere human or a zombie was easy enough. However to be able to take on a creature of such a magnitude as the Tyrant had made the Superman feel extremely powerful. The Tyrant slowly got up as the Superman kicked it in the face, forcing it back down to the ground. It may have been an arrogant decision, but the Superman decided to let the Tyrant get up. The Tyrant roared in anger and dashed forward, scraping his claw against the floor. As it came close to the Superman it raised its claw and uppercut the Superman into the ceiling. The Superman had hit the ceiling hard and then fell to the floor. The Superman had roared as he got up, and then jammed his arm into the Tyrant's stomach. He pushed forward as hard as he could. He pushed the Tyrant through the corridor and into the door that led to the other corridor. The Tyrant, then, managed to lift its leg up high enough to push the Superman away. The Superman had dashed towards the Tyrant again, but it just retaliated by extending its arm and pushing him away. The Tyrant then grabbed the Superman and lifted him up in the air. It, then, slammed him against the wall to the left and the wall to the right, and kept tossing him around. The Tyrant slammed the Superman against a wall and the Superman had used his leg to slam the Tyrant against the opposite wall. He pushed as hard as he could, trying to crush the innards of the Tyrant. The Tyrant had pushed the Superman's leg to the side and the fight went on.

Smith and Nick had descended down to basement six. The temperature was getting ridiculously cold. The walls and floors were frosted and Smith felt as numb as Nick claimed to be. They proceeded through a corridor with doors on the sides.

"Let's split up, if you find anything interesting report immediately," Smith said.

"Got it," Nick answered and the two had split up. Smith opened the first door on his left. It contained a medical storage room, but all the containers seemed to be empty and unimportant. Smith decided not to bother with it and moved on to the next door on the left. As he came in, the lights were out, but something was moving. Smith drew his gun and searched for a light switch. He found in on his left and flipped it. What he saw next startled and shocked him. To his left was a computer terminal with an unknown contraption that looked like a test tube dispenser. Following that, in the far left corner was a cylindrical machine of unknown use. Next to it was a capsule with a giant beehive in it. Inside, bees the size of a cat were attached to weird probes connecting to their backsides. Beside it, the final capsule contained something so grotesque that it made Smith cringe. The capsule contained a Tyrant as Barry described it. However the monstrosity that was before him had no legs or arms. It lay there in the capsule with wires and intervenes connected to it. Blood was slowly being drained from it as it moaned in pain. Vincent walked up to the capsule and looked at the world's most powerful biological weapon rendered helpless. It looked back at him and moaned. It was at that instant that Smith realized that even these weapons, created solely for destruction, are still victims. They did not want to become they way they did. They were a result of pure evil, but they were not the evil itself. Smith realized that the true enemy really was not there, but somewhere in a high-rise building, in a comfortable office, playing the good guy. Smith no longer felt hatred for all the creatures that attempted to kill him that night. Instead he felt pity for what they have become. Looking down at the floor, Smith noticed that all the probes, intervenes had led to the test tube dispenser near the computer terminal.

"What the hell is this?" Nick asked. Smith turned around and noticed that Nick was standing right there.

"How long have you been here?" Smith asked.

"I just walked in, what the hell's going on?"

Smith walked over to the computer terminal and looked at the screen. It said, "Preparation of ingredients for Daylight: Complete. Do you wish to proceed?"

"This is…" Smith paused, he remembered reading a document he found on basement five in one of the dorms speaking of Daylight as being the only known cure for the T-Virus, "The vaccine for the T-Virus," he said.

"What? How do you know?" Nick questioned.

"I found a file upstairs," Smith answered, "It mentioned this… This whole process," he recalled. Smith pointed to the chemical synthesizer in the corner and said, "P-Base," he then pointed to the capsule with the bees, "V-Poison," he said, then pointed to the amputated Tyrant, "and T-Blood."

Smith, then, pushed enter on the computer terminal and the test tube dispenser stated humming. The computer screen started a five minute countdown.

"I guess this is how long it will take to make Daylight."

"So, now what?" Smith asked.

"I guess we wait," Nick replied.

Five minutes passed, it seemed like forever, but finally the vile of the white liquid had been dispensed from the machine next to the computer terminal. Smith picked up the vile and said, "This is…"

"White gold?" Nick asked.

"Definitely," Smith said and looked at the computer screen. It prompted him to make another vial, he gladly confirmed. Smith figured that if it took another five minutes, and five minutes for every vial they'd make and there were five people left, he would make an extra and leave with six vials. That would take over half an hour, but Smith doubted that the others had passed by yet. He figured that he and Nick had time to spare while the others caught up to them. During that half an hour, Nick found a case that they could put the vials in. They had also discovered that beyond the corridor with all the chemical storage rooms, an epic battle ensued between two large, humanoid, creatures. Smith decided not to touch that with a ten foot pole. After the final daylight had been completed, Smith put it in the case and then looked at the suffering Tyrant in the capsule. Smith raised his King Cobra and said, "Thank you, you have suffered enough." Two shots were all it took. The Tyrant was left decapitated it did not have to suffer anymore. Something seemed odd. Smith did not feel as cold as he was before. The floor was wet.

"What the hell?" Smith said, "Are they defrosting us?"

"It sure was damn cold here. Maybe the air conditioning overheated."

"Well, whatever it is, it feels a lot better."

"There's a room, down the hall, looks like resting quarters," Nick said, "You want to wait for the others there?"

"Sure, why not? What else have we got to do? Might as well take a rest," Smith said and the two proceeded down the hall.


	11. TEN

As Barry had led Mike and Gwen through basement five until they reached the elevator. The thought of leaving Jerry behind did not settle with Mike, but it was her wish. According to his watch, it had been forty minutes, meaning that they only had twenty minutes left until she pulls the trigger on herself. They moved quickly through the sixth floor, passing by all kinds of room when suddenly, Mike heard a familiar voice saying, "Barry? Mike?"

"Smith?" he said as he turned around and ran into room. The room contained a large sofa in the corner, a coffee table and a kitchen-like corner with a fridge, a sink, some counters and a stove, although Mike was not particularly hungry at the moment. The S.T.A.R.S. were re-united Mike thought. But then Smith asked a question which made Mike realize that wasn't so, "Where's Jerry?"

"Smith," Barry said, hesitating, "She was infected. She wanted us to leave her behind and if in an hour we didn't return with the vaccine, she would pull the trigger."

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Smith said as he took out a vial from a small metallic case, "Take this to her, now!" Barry took the vial of white liquid and as he was about to leave, Mike followed, "Wait, I'm coming too!" He wanted to come with Barry and help.

"Forget it," Barry said, "Now that we found Smith, you got to make sure to secure our escape route. I _will_ be back with Jerry." Mike sighed, "Okay. But you better be damn careful!" Barry nodded and left for the door.

"Barry!" Smith yelled. Barry turned around to see that Smith tossed his revolver to Barry, "Make good use of it." Barry gave smith a friendly salute and ran off.

"Close the door," Smith said, "Don't want to attract unwanted attention."

Mike walked up to the door and closed it shut, "Good idea."

"Check this out," Nick said out loud, pulling out a box from inside a small drawer, "These are… Shotgun shells."

"Damn," Smith said, "I should've kept that shotgun, huh?"

"Well, live and learn," Nick said. Mike felt like the tension wasn't so bad now. They had the antivirus, sure, but was there a way out?

"So, how _is_ our escape route?" Mike asked.

"It's a no go. A couple of large Arnold Schwarzeneggers are having a rumble just past that hall. We can't pass now."

"I see. So we're just going to sit here, biding out time?"

"Might as well. Wait for Barry." Smith noticed Gwen and couldn't help but ask, "Who's this?"

"I am Dr. Gwen Ascot," she said, "I worked in this lab, but not anymore."

"Vincent Smith," he extended his hand, "nice to meet you." Smith looked at the case full of Daylight, "Do any of you guys think you might be infected? I have Daylight right here."

"The vaccine does not affect the condition of the body in any negative way," Gwen said, "We might as well take it anyway."

Smith handed Mike the vial, he shook a little. The top metallic part of it had a red arrow on it facing counterclockwise.

"Just twist it," Gwen said. Mike did so and a needle the thickness of an I.V. needle. Mike hated needles, but he decided that it's better to be safe than sorry, especially when you're not talking about a minor flu, but a biologically engineered virus which induces decomposition, cannibalism and mutation. Mike took a deep breath and injected the vial into a vein on his left arm. The white liquid quickly drained and Mike pulled the needle out of his vein and threw the vial to the ground. He was shaking, he had always hated needles, and this one was two millimeters thick. He saw Smith, Nick and Gwen do the same. It looked like a heroin addict convention. Mike looked at the doorway and suddenly thought of Jerry. If only she had known that the antivirus was so close. Mike looked at his watch and counted the time, Barry only had seven minutes until Jerry blew her brains out.

Left practically unarmed, Kell and his team carefully traveled through basement four. The floor had mainly medical rooms and offices. However, there was one storage area which caught Kell's attention, particularly because it was secured. Kell knew that something important had to be there. He placed a pack of C4 against the door and motioned for his men to clear the way. The two men ran behind a corner, Kell followed. Taking out a remote detonator, he pushed a button and _boom_ the sound could be heard loudly through the metallic corridors. Immediately he ran to check the room. The door may have been locked well, but the explosion left nothing of it. Kell entered to find a small lab, jam-packed with all kinds of chemicals and synthesizers. A small table stood in the center. On the table there was a small, black case. It looked like it was made out of shiny plastic. Kell approached it and pushed the small button on the front, opening the case. Inside was a small vial with light-blue liquid inside of it. A card lay on the top. Kell picked up the card.

A present just for you, Mr. Infected

If any T-Virus should enter your blood, don't hesitate to use this.

It is your ultimate solution. Forget daylight and enjoy the beauty of moonlight.

The words were printed on the card, but on the back of it something was written in handwriting.

To whoever finds this:

Take the agent right away to make sure that you are protected from the Virus at all costs.

This is your only chance. It should work a lot better than standard antivirus.

Kell thought that the note was weird, but he decided that it may have been a good idea to take the substance, whatever it may be. He pocketed the small box and exited the small room, his men waiting.

"What was it?" Phillips asked.

"Nothing. I-I'm not sure actually," Kell replied, walking off, "Come on, let's find those damn terrorists."

"Uh, Kell," Jacobs said in an unsure manner.

"What is it?" Kell sounded frustrated, but not to the point of aggression.

"I was thinking. You think it's possible that those S.T.A.R.S. guys were telling the truth? I mean, look at this place. You think Umbrella really are the bad guys?"

"No, not you too!" Kell pinned Jacobs against the wall, "Are you losing your morale, Soldier?"

"N-no sir… It's just that… Everything I've seen today…"

"Jacobs! I don't know what the hell is going on either, but I _do_ know that those damn terrorists left us in this God forsaken place with nothing but these pathetic nine-millimeters to defend ourselves! Now, whose side are you on?"

"Y-yours… Sorry."

At that point, Kell let go of Jacobs and went on ahead, "Come on! We're going to find those damn terrorists and make them pay!"

Shortly after, they reached basement five. At that point, the frosted walls seemed to melt. Whatever those temperature swings were, Kell hoped it wouldn't get too hot. They were dressed for the cold, but if it got hot, it would mean getting rid of their armor, and Kell did not like that idea. They walked through the floors of basement five, passing by living quarters, Kell knew that stopping to find something useful would have been a good idea, but he had no patience to wait. He had to apprehend the terrorists at all costs. As they walked through one of the corridors, Kell's attention was immediately caught by one of the terrorists, the female from before. She sat up against a wall, looked a lot like bait to him, but her hand wouldn't stop bleeding, as it seemed to Kell. He ran up to her, aiming his gun, "Where are the rest of your associates?" She looked at him and said, "None of your fucking business."

"You're infected, right? I have the cure if you want it." Kell pulled out a vial with white liquid in it, "It was issued to us at the beginning of this mission."

The woman held her hand up in rejection, "I'm not going to take anything from you," she said in her weak voice, "Why the hell are you helping me anyway?"

"I just don't think that even terrorists deserve to end up like the rest of this lab's staff. Even if you _did_ cause all this, I want to show you that I'm a bigger man and if you and your friends come quietly, I can guarantee their safety."

"Fuck you!" she said with all her strength, "You're still persisting about that aren't you? Open your fucking eyes! We did not cause _any_ of this!"

In disappointment, Kell started walking away, "I'm sorry it has to be this way then, but I have a mission to accomplish."

He and his team went on to the next corridor. A few corridors later, they were walking in an L-Shaped corridor when Kell heard more footsteps. He and his men pointed their guns to the turn in the junction. He saw the older terrorist who took their guns and fired. Unfortunately, the man saw them too and managed to duck for cover in time, hiding behind the corner.

"Don't' shoot! Please! I have to get through!" The man pleaded, but Kell didn't care.

"I'm not buying it! Where are my guns?" Kell wanted his MP5 back and was ready to kill for it.

"We lost them," the man said, "In a battle, I'm sorry! But if I don't get through soon, one of my comrades, who is infected, will shoot herself."

"I saw your comrade," Kell said, "She wouldn't take my antivirus and refused to co-operate."

"You didn't…" The man sounded scared.

"No, she's still alive," Kell said. "Or she was when I last saw her."

"Please! I _have_ to take the antivirus to her!"

"Fine," Kell said in an arrogant tone of voice, "If you want to save her so bad. All your weapons, throw them here! Everything!"

Moment later, two powerful revolvers slid towards Kell, followed by a 9mm beretta and two 9mm clips, "This is all I have, I swear!"

Kell and his men picked up the weapons, Kell holding the .44 Colt Python, and pointed it at the junction, "Alright, go, but try anything funny and you're dead!"

The man came from around the corner with his hands up as he walked past Kell and his soldiers. After the man exited the room, Kell started walking towards the other door. A few corridors later, Kell stumbled upon a scene that almost made him throw up. Eight dead victims of the disease, the smell was so awful that it made Kell's stomach turn. He ran past them quickly and into the corridor that followed. There, like a blessing from the sky, lay a shotgun. However, as Kell picked it up he realized that it was only a blessing in disguise. The weapon was empty.

_Better take it anyway,_ Kell thought. _I may need it._

The battle raged on as the Superman fought against the other Tyrant. Many hits were exchanged, and for a while it seemed like neither had the advantage.

However, after a while, the Tyrants' wounds and scars stopped healing. The Superman realized that he had to finish the other Tyrant quickly. He pinned it against the wall and held it there by the chest. He pushed on, flexing all his muscles until his arm finally pierced the Tyrant's chest. He could feel the Tyrant's lungs, its heart, its broken ribs and its ripped muscle tissue. He lifted the Tyrant up off the ground and raised it high in the air. With his other arm, he stabbed it in the stomach and lifted its lower body in the air as well. His muscles flexed, he pulled hard until the Tyrant's body separated in two. The battle was over. The Superman had killed the Tyrant. He swung his arms and threw the two halves of the body to the ground. Blood spilled everywhere, but the Superman only enjoyed it. He looked at the door, in the direction the other Umbrella soldier went and decided to follow.

Jerry sat in the cold corridor, but she didn't feel cold at all. Her body's temperature had risen and she felt like she was going to pass out. She looked at her watch and said, "Time's up guys… It's been fun." She aimed the gun at her temple and laughed.

_Who am I kidding? I want to live!_

She lowered the gun and attempted to get up, when suddenly a noise came from one of the ventilation shafts. It flew open and a creature—which looked like a skinned human with giant claws and exposed brain—had come out of the vent. Its tongue was at least two meters long, as it waved in front of Jerrika. The creature slowly approached Jerry, who was too scared to move. She aimed her gun, but the creature slowly drew its tongue back, then whipped it forward, piercing Jerrika's torso. Jerry screamed in pain as he felt her own blood leak out of her stomach. The creature started wrapping its tongue around her neck, when a loud noise had disturbed it. Jerry was in too much pain to open her eyes, but someone had walked in the room. The creature screeched and then all that Jerry could hear was two loud thumps, then a soft click and then gunfire – three shots. The creature hit the ground and shrieked loudly. Jerrika managed to open her eyes, but couldn't see well because of her tears. She recognized the man instantly despite the blur, it was Barry. He helped her lay down from her sitting position, "Jerry! Can you still hear me?"

"Barry," she managed to say, although she wasn't sure if her words came out clear enough for him to understand.

"Don't talk," he said, "It's okay! You're going to be alright! I have the antivirus!"

"Th-thanks," she said coughing, "But I think… I think that's… Least… My… Problems…"

"Jerry! Don't worry, we'll put a tourniquet on you and you'll be fine!"

Jerry couldn't hear him that well anymore, but she managed to understand what he said, "Who… You kidding? Old man… Even I… Know that… It's… Too damn late…"

"Jerry. Don't talk, just rest," Barry said. She could feel him holding her hand. She never thought it could be that comforting. All she wanted to do was sleep. She closer her eyes and entered her peaceful slumber.


	12. ELEVEN

By the time Kell and his men reached basement six, Kell cared too little about checking the side doors and simply proceeded down the hall. If there was one way to figure out how to get out of this lab, it was to go to the last door in the hall. That would lead to another hall, but eventually, an elevator would be reached. He walked past the Chemical hall as it was labeled and walked into the next hall. The whole place reeked of blood. It also reeked of a fight. Walls were dented, blood smears were everywhere and on the ground laid a large humanoid creature torn in half. Kell walked up to it and looked at it closely. It looked alive, except it didn't move. Its eyes were open. It had a look of devastation. Kell did _not_ want to find out what did this to the large creature. What he _did_ want to know was what this creature was. Kell looked back at his men to silently exchange their reactions, but then noticed that his men were scratching themselves.

"Shit," said Jacobs. "This really itches."

"What's wrong?" Kell inquired.

"Just a rash."

"Yeah," Phillips added, "Nothing big."

Kell started feeling an itch himself and worried him. According to the mission briefing, those were the first symptoms of a raw infection, "Your antivirus," he said. "Use them."

Both men took the vials out of their pockets and injected themselves. Kell, instead, took out the pale blue vial and injected himself with it and then looked towards the end of the corridor, "Good. Then let's move on."

Kell kept walking then heard one of his men make a choking scream. "What is it?" Kell turned around to see his men clenching their chests. Was this just a side effect of the antivirus? No. Something was wrong.

Phillips' clothes ripped as his body grew massively in size. He was almost as big as the creature from before. The body was, the legs did not seem to grow, but he didn't look Human anymore. Massive veins and tendrils were swelling out of his back. His arms now had claws the size of large kitchen knives. Jacobs was convulsing, but experienced similar effects. Phillips, now a horrible monster, started lurching toward Kell. He or _it_ had reached his arms forward and started running towards Kell. Kell quickly stumbled backwards—lifting up the Revolver he got from the terrorist earlier and aimed it high as he fell backwards. He unloaded at the creature, but that cheap bastard only had three bullets in the chamber. The creature stumbled backwards as the other one, that used to be Jacobs, got up, fully transformed. Kell had no choice. He took out his hand grenade, pulled the pin and threw it at the two creatures just as they were ready to attack. Kell jumped back, in order to avoid getting blown up or hit by shrapnel. After a loud boom, Kell remained on the ground, keeping a moment of silence for his comrades. More questions occurred than he had answers for. Why did this happen? Did they take the antivirus too late? Or was it something else? Kell decided to put the thought at rest until he returned to the headquarters. However, he was not ready to move on yet.

Walter had finally reached basement seven. It was a pity that he had to sacrifice Dr. Hendrix, but she was slowing Walter down anyway. And his true mission did not involve rescuing anybody in the first place. Walter was now in the sterilization room on basement seven. The room detected any viral contamination and eliminated it through incineration. Walter could only hope that he was not infected. He pushed a few buttons and the contamination detection started. He placed his thumb in a sampler in the corner and a drop of his blood was taken. After a few seconds the computer screen said:

Virus Detection: Negative

Antivirus Detection: Negative

A light above the exit door turned green and Walter walked through unscathed. He was in a large room with a computer terminal for the self destruct system and a large elevator that would lead to an enclosed helipad above on the surface. He walked up to the computer terminal quickly, setting up the self destruct system. He was briefed on how to start it up so it didn't take too long. Walter set it to half an hour, it was plenty of time for the Umbrella pickup helicopter to find him and pick him up. It was also a pity that Kell wouldn't make it, but Walter needed to complete this mission by any means necessary. A loud, female, robotic voice sounded through the room, "The self destruct system has been activated. This sequence may not be aborted. All elevators now have access to Basement Seven. All employees proceed to the nearest elevator immediately."

"They won't make it," Walter said to himself, then walked up to the elevator, taking out his radio, "Chopper 1, chopper 1, this is Angel. Over." After some static, a voice came over the radio, "This is chopper one, what is your position? Over."

"Mission accomplished, I will be up on the surface shortly, wait for my flare. Over and out."

Walter pushed the call button, but the elevator didn't respond. Walter smashed the door in anger, "What the hell is this?"

He looked at a small terminal above the call button.

Please swipe the Master Keycard in order to proceed to the surface.

"What the fuck? No!"

Walter banged on the elevator door and mashed the call button in desperation. There was no keyboard to override the elevator security. He was angry and enraged and didn't give up on bashing on the door. He had explosives on him, but he knew that using them would probably break the elevator, not to mention the fact that he himself might get caught in the explosion, so that was definitely not an option. He leaned against the elevator door and sat on the floor, still leaning against it. He had to think of a plan. And he only had twenty six minutes to do it.

"The self destruct system has been activated," the words Barry was all too familiar with. That only meant that someone managed to reach the self destruct device, and Barry was sure that it was way at the bottom of this lab. Barry was kneeling beside the deceased Jerry. He got up and said his final farewell to Jerry. He saluted her and turned around, injecting himself with the vial of the antivirus which he was holding for Jerry. He then headed for the elevator that would have reached basement four. Of course, according to the announcement, all elevators would access basement seven. After passing a few corridors, he stepped into the elevator and it headed down. Barry ended up facing a long dark corridor, illuminated only by red siren lights. Barry ran through it not seeing any zombies, he exited into a large room. The room was circular and had doors coming out the sides, it also had a large circular wall in the middle with a door on it. It seemed like all the doors led to the room in the centre and from there it seemed like everything led to the cylindrical room in the centre. Barry walked in, the wall said, 'Sterilization Room.' Barry followed the instruction on the screen of a small computer terminal and placed his thumb on the blood sampler. The virus scan turned out to be negative, luckily for Barry. He had no bloodstains on him, the light above the door shone green and Barry exited into another large room where a man sat up against the elevator door. He was wearing an Umbrella uniform, one of the soldiers that were sent in.

"You're not getting past me!" The man said in anger as he got up.

"You idiot! The important thing is to survive!"

"Survival of the fittest," he said, "That's the way it goes."


	13. TWELVE

"The self destruct system had been activated," the words pierced Smith's ears. He got a hot, panicky feeling on the back of his neck.

"Shit…" He listened to the voice then said, "Alright, we're heading back to the elevator that used to lead up immediately! Let's go now!" He once again felt like a leader and felt responsible for the lives of all those who were alive. He waited until all exited then followed them. The hall had many red siren lights flashing along with an alarm that was deafening to the ears. They ran back towards the elevator where they originally came from. Smith didn't pick up the daylight, but he had no time to go back. He just hoped that Barry wasn't infected, other than him, everybody got a dose. With Smith, Nick, Mike and Gwen—it was a tight fit in that small elevator, but they managed. Besides, they had to go down, not up. Smith and the others descended and entered what seemed to be basement seven. There were not lights except the alarm lights. It was one long corridor, no turns, no curves, just a straight path.

"I'll secure the route!" Smith shouted over the alarm. "Follow me, but not too close!"

He proceeded down the corridor at a fast-paced walk, but not at a run. Smith noticed a couple of dark figures in the corridor, "Infected," he said, drawing his gun and aiming. It was hard in the dark light, and Smith lost his flashlight along with his vest. It took him a little while to take correct aim. Then with one shot he hit the undead in the neck, the zombie only staggered, but then started shuffling toward Smith. He took aim again and when the zombie got closer, Smith fired and this time hit the zombie in the head. It fell back and did not move anymore. However, the other one was heading right for Smith. He raised his gun, but was too late. The zombie grabbed onto him and attempted to bite. It took Smith all his strength to push the zombie away enough to avoid the bite, but the zombie reached in and attempted to bite again. Smith felt being pulled back by someone, then saw that Nick pulled him back while Mike kicked the zombie away. The zombie lost its grip, but left scratch marks on Smith. Mike had kicked the zombie away and then shot it in the head three times. The undead fell back on the other one and convulsed for a few seconds before he stopped moving. Smith was breathing heavily, he did not want to become like the two lab workers who now lay on the ground.

"Guys?" Smith said, his voice was scared and shaky. Gwen walked by him with a calm look on her face, "Relax," she said, "The daylight you injected yourself with is a vaccine. You're immune from the T-Virus for a while." She turned around and gave him a smile.

Smith sighed with relief and laughed out loud. Mike and Nick did the same. They laughed until Smith attention was caught again by the female voice saying, "The self destruct system has been activated."

"Shut up," he said, "Come on, guys. We got to roll." He ran for the door which was now visible. He reached the end of the hall, his teammates followed by closely. He exited the corridor and faced a large cylindrical room surrounded by a circular wall with doorways sticking out of it.

"I think I figured it out," he said, "All the elevators are arranged in a way that they end up leading to this floor in a circular pattern."

"And they all end up leading to this circular… Room," Nick said.

They entered a small room that was labeled Sterilization Room. Smith proceeded with protocol and placed his thumb on the blood sampler. The results came out well.

Virus Detection: Negative

Antivirus Detection: Daylight Positive

To Smith's relief, the results came out the same for everyone else. A few seconds later, a loud buzzing sound occurred, the computer screen shone red and said,

Danger! T-Virus presence detected! The room will be sterilized!

The room quickly became unbearably hot and Smith and the others screamed in pain as the temperature rose. For ten seconds it felt like they were submerged even lower into the depths of hell. After that, with a loud bleep the temperature turned normal again. The computer screen displayed a message saying that there was no more contamination. The light above the door shone green and the door unlocked. As smith stepped through he saw his friend in trouble.

There was no way up. Walter had given up hope. However, he was a soldier and would not regret his actions. His mission was fulfilled. The lab would be destroyed shortly and the S.T.A.R.S. would be eliminated. Walter was always prepared for death, and if he could, he would avoid it, but there was no going back anymore. Walter was only happy that his life would not end in vain. He was sitting up against the elevator doors. Somebody came out of the sterilization room. Walter immediately got up as he saw the S.T.A.R.S. member, "You're not getting past me!" Walter knew that there was no way out, but he refused to spend his last moments beside a S.T.A.R.S. member—one that was alive anyway. The man tried to argue his life, but Walter gave him little time before he attacked. Walter threw a punch at the man's face. The punch landed successfully, making the man stumble back, but he didn't stagger for long. The S.T.A.R.S. member swung and punched Walter in the stomach followed by a swing punch in the face. Walter took a deep breath after he got slugged in the stomach and punched in the face. Walter took out his gun, but the man grabbed him by the right hand and forced it upward, the gun fired off in the air—not hitting anybody. The man used his forearm and elbow to push Walter hard against the elevator door and made him drop the gun. Walter spun around, throwing off the man's grip and then elbowed him in the side of the head. The man once again staggered and then swung a punch. Walter ducked it and tackled the man, threw him against the door and kicked him hard in the stomach. The man staggered once more and Walter pinned him against the wall by the neck using his forearm. He continuously punched the man in the stomach using his other arm and then, out of nowhere there was this incredible pain pinching Walter in the shoulder. Before he realized what had happened his back was engulfed in the same pain in two more places. The feeling was all too familiar. Someone shot him. He barely gathered the strength to turn around and see three more S.T.A.R.S. members—one of them holding a gun—before he collapsed to the floor.

Seeing Barry being pinned down and attacked by the member of Umbrella, Smith didn't think twice before aiming and shooting the man. Three shots and the man lost his hold on Barry, turned around and looked at Smith with devastation before collapsing to the floor. Smith ran up to Barry who barely managed to get up.

"You're okay!" Smith said in excitement.

"Yeah," Barry said, holding his stomach.

Smith looked around and a strange dark feeling took him over. Something wasn't right, "Where's Jerry?" Seeing Barry's facial expression at the time, Smith already knew the answer, but refused to believe it. Barry had that look on his face that everybody made when they found it difficult to tell someone something, especially about a person's death. Smith remembered himself making that face a million times in his life, back when he was in S.W.A.T.

"She's… Vincent, I'm sorry." That was another thing. Nobody ever called Smith by his first name.

"No!" Mike interrupted, he walked up to Barry almost seemed like he was ready to kill Barry himself, "Tell me it's not true, God dammit!"

"I'm sorry! I was too late!" Barry yelled with a voice of sorrowful desperation.

Smith looked at the rest of the team. Nick and Gwen didn't do or say anything, they just stood there. He could see the same look of devastation on their faces. Smith sighed and then his attention was caught by the female voice warning them of the self destruct system. He hated to be so cold, but they had to go on.

"Guys," Smith said, sighing, "We have to evacuate immediately."

He walked over to the self destruct computer terminal and saw that they only had twenty minutes to clear out of there.

"Damn it!" Smith's attention was caught by Barry's cursing, "We can't!"

"What's the matter?" Smith asked noticing that Nick and Barry were looking at the computer screen.

"It's no good," Nick said, "You need the Masker Keycard to open this elevator. This is some heavy duty system, not even _I_ could hack it."

"Master Keycard," Smith said. He then slammed the elevator door, "Shit! Damn it! I had it!" He grabbed Nick by the shoulders yelling, "I had it! How could I let that damn spider take my vest?" Smith remembered that moment well, he began to feel pain in his arm, he wasn't paying attention to it, but it seemed as though the painkillers wore off. He looked at his arm. It had a large bruise on it. Smith couldn't believe he didn't notice it, but there were a lot of things on his mind.

After a brief pause, someone tapped Smith on the shoulder. Smith turned around, seeing Barry holding a keycard and a S.T.A.R.S. vest which he was wearing, "Recognize this?"

Smith couldn't believe it, how was it possible? Smith grabbed the vest and the card out of Barry's hands, "This is… Unbelievable."

"I found it in a corridor full of spiders," Barry said.

"My lucky vest," Smith said and swiped the card on the terminal beside the elevator. The small light turned green and when Smith pushed the call button, the large elevator doors opened. Smith and the others entered the large elevator. There was only one button. Up. This truly was the way out. Smith pushed the button and as the doors closed, he could see another Umbrella soldier enter the room. The soldier seemed to catch a glimpse of the S.T.A.R.S. before the elevator doors closed shut. It took about a minute until Smith and his team reached the top. The large elevator doors opened to a big disappointment. He walked out onto a helipad, at first it seemed noticeable enough, but then, when smith looked up he noticed a large cloth that seemed to be camouflaging the helipad. Only a small hole, about one squared meter could be seen at the top. The helipad was illuminated by very dim lights. Umbrella didn't want this helipad to be seen from the sky. If Nick's message had reached the S.T.A.R.S. headquarters in Reno, Smith very much doubted that Iggy, the S.T.A.R.S. pilot would be able to notice the helipad. They had less than fifteen minutes until the whole place exploded. It seemed as though there was no hope. Without a flare gun, there was no way that Iggy, or anyone else would be able to find them.


	14. THIRTEEN

"The self destruct system had been activated," the words barely pierced Kell's ears. He was in too much thought, looking at the antivirus that was issued to him. He then switched his focus to the other vial, the one with the pale blue liquid in it.

_The ultimate solution for Mr. Infected._

He slowly got up and headed back toward the elevator which he came from. There was no point in staying any longer. He looked at the remains of what once used to be his teammates and kept walking. Whatever happened, it must have been induced by those damn terrorists. Kell would make them pay. He walked a little faster with a new ambition—to kill the terrorists at all costs. He entered the elevator and it took him down to basement seven. He ran through the corridor, stepping over two infected victims that were apparently incapacitated by someone, probably the terrorists. Kell reached the end of the corridor and ended up in a circular room. The door in the middle of a room in the centre led to a sterilization room. Following the procedure on the computer terminal, Kell was cleared to proceed. As he exited the room he saw large elevator doors close. Kell spotted the terrorists inside the elevator right away, but his attention was quickly shifted to his Captain, who lay on the floor. Kell quickly ran up to him and kneeled down.

"Captain!"

"Kell. The… The terrorists are… Escaping… You must apprehend them. The one that shot me… The man with the bruised arm."

"Shut up! You're coming with me!" Kell hated to see his captain in such a condition. A puddle of blood was forming beneath Walter and some blood came out of his mouth as he coughed.

"Kell," he said. "After you… Complete this mission… Take this," Walter held up a document, "This mission… Full disclosure… You deserve it."

"Walter! No! Hang in there!"

"Kell… I'm sorry… There are… A lot… …of things that I… Kept from you… Now go. You must complete this mission… …as ordered by Umbrella."

Walter then let out a grunt of relief as his head tilted to the side. He didn't move anymore.

"No! Captain, wait!" Kell looked at the elevator doors. He was enraged, "I'll kill him!" Kell put the documents into his pocket and called the elevator.

Smith was trying to think of ideas that could get them out of that enclosed helipad, but he couldn't. Nothing came. If they had _any_ kind of a phone or a way to contact the outside world, but the truth was they didn't.

The elevator doors opened and the Umbrella soldier that Smith saw enter the elevator room had apparently reached the top. He looked at Smith and pointed his gun at him.

"You killed my Captain!"

"Smith!" Barry yelled, "Don't try to bargain with him, he thinks we're terrorists!"

"Really?" Smith said looking at the Umbrella soldier, "You think that you're the good guy?"

"I _know_ I am!"

"Then why do you want to brutally murder all of us? If you're the good guy, then be the bigger man and stop this!"

"Fine," the soldier said. "You're right. If you want your team to live… A one on one fight to the death with you is all I want."

"What? You watch too many movies," Smith said, not sounding like he took the man seriously. "Don't be an idiot."

"So now you insult me? You asked for this!"

The soldier put away his gun, dropped the shotgun that was strapped to his back and ran towards Smith, who retaliated by jabbing him in the stomach, stopping him in place, then kicking him on the side of the head. Smith had extensive training in unarmed combat. There was no way this kid could win. Smith's kick caused the soldier to fall to the ground, holding his head, he shook it. The kid then got up and again ran for Smith. Smith attempted to punch him again, but the soldier moved out of the way and shoved Smith causing him to stumble, then thrust kicked him in the stomach and as Smith bent over in pain, the soldier kicked him in the face making him fall back.

Smith lay on the ground holding his face. The kid packed a punch, or rather a kick. Smith rolled over onto his stomach and got up. He coughed, then, when the soldier ran towards him again, Smith jumped back, then ducked and tackled the soldier, knocking him down to the ground. Smith didn't like to play dirty, but he wasn't about to die in a fist fight with some kid. He was sitting on the soldier currently, and punched him in the face repeatedly. The soldier brought his knee up and kicked Smith in the back, pushing him off. Smith got up and watched the soldier do the same while holding onto his face.

"You bastards! It's people like you that cause the downfall of society!"

"No, you're wrong!" Smith argued. "We're not terrorists! Umbrella has brainwashed you! We're not the bad guys! We just wanted to prevent the virus from spreading! Umbrella engineered it!"

"A friendly pharmaceutical company secretly researching bio-weapons… Right."

The man ran up to Smith, but smith stepped out of the way and back kicked him pushing him against the elevator doors. The soldier seemed to rest for a moment catching his breath, but as soon as he seemed ready to attack again, four giant knives stabbed through the back of him, now sticking out of his stomach.

Nick watched as the four knives stabbed the Umbrella soldier. They were bloody, there was no way that soldier could survive anything like that. Nick watched the knives move around and then realized that they weren't knives at all, but giant claws, the size of large daggers or small swords. The elevator door started deforming. Something was pushing it from the inside. The door was torn open and a large humanoid creature came out, the door still hanging on its arm, as well as the Umbrella soldier.

"Tyrant," Nick heard Barry say quietly to himself. It was exactly as nick imagined it from Barry's story of the Spencer Estate incident. The Tyrant swung his arm throwing the door and the soldier five meters. The soldier was still alive, moving and struggling under that door. Nick decided that he should worry about himself instead of watching the soldier, he looked at the shotgun that the soldier dropped earlier and recognized it as the same one that Smith left back on basement five. Nick then remembered the load of shotgun shells that he found earlier and ran up to the shotgun picking it up. Nick quickly loaded the shotgun and cocked it, "Smith, Catch!" He tossed the shotgun to Smith. Smith caught it quickly without hesitation. Nick imagined that Smith was in a lot of pain from the fight, but still managed to keep calm and collective. Smith really was a damn good leader. He ran up to the Tyrant and fired off. The Tyrant stumbled, skin broke, blood slowly poured out, but the creature didn't budge. Smith was empty, he stumbled back as the Tyrant swung his arm hitting Smith making him fly three meters. Suddenly, the Tyrant spoke.

"One thing is true," he said, I am the best biological weapon in the world! And for that, I must thank Umbrella. However, play with fire and you'll get burned. Umbrella will get taken out by their own creation. You kill all those biological weapons, not realizing that they are NOT the bad guys! They are victims, just like you! The only bad guys here are the scum that created me and this damned virus! Umbrella! I worked for them you know."

Nick turned to look at Gwen, not seeing her. Barry motioned towards a large crate near a wall. Nick understood that Gwen must have been hiding.

"It is truly horrible that Umbrella would use _their own_ employees as guinea pigs. However, that is how it is. Umbrella have always used their soldiers for weapons. Even the unit that was sent in here tonight probably had some kind of alterations induced by the virus," the Tyrant went on, probably not worried about a slightest thing that the S.T.A.R.S. might do to him.

Nick thought he was hearing things, but then he looked up and realized that there was a helicopter flying around, Nick was positive that his message got through.

"Now that my little speech is over, I'll end your misery."

The Tyrant raised his giant hand and ran toward Smith, who rolled out of the way. Nick immediately fired his Beretta, although it didn't seem like it did anything to the Tyrant.

_Hell point blank shotgun didn't work why would this?_

Nick ran backwards shooting the Tyrant, then seeing that Mike's attention was caught by something. Nick wasn't sure what it was except that it was either the door or the Umbrella soldier who lay under it.

Mike ran for the door for whatever reason, but the Tyrant ran up to him and 'slapped' him, making him fly across the helipad. Mike seemed to be okay, but what was he running for? The Tyrant, then, started heading for Nick. Nick though he'd shit his pants, he was so scared. Smith fired off the rest of his 9mm bullets that were in his Beretta, probably to distract the Tyrant away from Nick. Either way, there didn't seem to be any hope for the S.T.A.R.S.

All of a sudden, the elevator door popped up into the air and the once injured Umbrella soldier stood there. He seemed to be back in top shape. He also looked freakishly different. His hair was white, almost blue. His eyes were pure black.

That seemed to be the break that Mike needed, he ran up to the black object that lay on the floor, not two meters away from the Umbrella soldier. When Mike raised it in the air, Nick realized that it was a flare gun. He aimed for the hole in the camo-ceiling and fired.


	15. FOURTEEN

Iggy Brewington was a twenty nine year old S.T.A.R.S. pilot. He was originally from Alabama and had the accent to justify it. As soon as they got a distress call from Nick something about being stuck in Tahoe forest, Iggy started the 'copter and took off. He ignored the rest of the officers and the police chief. He figured he was going to be fired for this, but he didn't have time to fill in all the paperwork needed to take the helicopter. His friends were in danger.

Iggy was flying around Tahoe forest. He was searching the approximate location of where Nick said they were, but it was still a damn big, area to explore. He was searching for about an hour when he saw a flare. It came from the middle of the woods. Iggy went straight for it. He was searching for a landing spot but he couldn't even see where they were. Looking harder, he noticed a dim light in the midst of trees. Examining it closer he noticed that there was a, what looked like a landing pad camouflaged by some drapery. Iggy couldn't land, but that's why there was a rope ladder. Luckily he brought Xander Joice along with him. Xander was the man who received the distress email. They flew over the landing pad and Xander was about to drop the rope ladder when loud clanking could be heard.

"Shit!" Xander yelled. "What the hell's going on?"

"Someone's firin' at us!"

Jake Small, the pilot who brought in the Umbrella team earlier that night had been waiting for a signal from on of the soldiers after the mission was complete. He saw the flare and took off immediately. Jake was piloting, but there was another soldier in the helicopter. He was a big guy. He wore a mask. Not even Jake knew who he was, but he was packing some major weaponry: SM-29 SABR OICW assault rifle with an attached grenade launcher. Jake heard that the weapon was powerful enough to take down a small building. This man was sent in to complete the mission incase the team fails, but it looked like there was no necessity to send him in.

"What the hell? Who is that?" Jake saw another helicopter.

"Don't worry," the man in the back said. "I'll take care of it."

Jake didn't know what he meant, but when the man aimed his rifle it was clear.

"Get me a little closer," he said, "I have to be facing them."

"Alright," Jake said in a calm fashion and maneuvered the helicopter so that the side of it was facing the other helicopter. Jake glanced back and saw the man firing at the other 'copter. It took about thirty seconds for the man to piece his way to the engine and the other helicopter went down, spinning fast. Jake was in awe. He has never seen such marksmanship skills.

"Wow, that's quite an eye you got," he said. "Who are you anyway?" After a brief pause, the man said, "They call me 'Mr. Death.' "

Jake heard about 'Mr. Death' before from other Umbrella pilots, but he just thought they were over exaggerating his amazing survival skills. However, Jake saw with his own eyes how skillful this soldier was. He was definitely elite.

"Mr. Death? Are you Hunk? _The_ legendary Hunk?"

"Yep," the man answered bluntly.

"Why Mr. Death?"

"It's what the pilots call me," he said, "I didn't come up with it."

"Wow," Jake said. "I'm flying Hunk… _The_ Hunk… You know—," Jake was about to say as they flew over the helipad and saw a man waving and six other people standing around, he shone his spotlight over them.

"Who the hell are they?"

Hunk looked down and said, "Look like the terrorists that we were sent in to kill. Should I?"

Jake thought about it for a second and then said, "No. Let's take them to the HQ. Our bosses might be interested in talking to them alive."

Jake put the fact that he shone the light on them to thought. He knew that they wouldn't be able to see who picked them up until they got on and Hunk of all people should be able to keep them at bay until they reach HQ.

Kell felt an incredible pain. Something had stabbed him. After a few seconds, which, to Kell, felt like hours, he was thrown to the ground with the heavy elevator door on top of him. He didn't have enough blood left in him to stay conscious. Not for much longer. Kell felt his consciousness fading away. He hung onto consciousness, he realized everything that happened around him, but it all seemed blurry, slow and felt like a dream.

"It is truly horrible that Umbrella would use _their own_ employees as guinea pigs."

The words of the Tyrant echoed through Kell's brain, "Even the unit that was sent in here tonight probably had some kind of alterations induced by the virus."

Kell couldn't believe it. The S.T.A.R.S. were actually not terrorists. Umbrella were the bad guys? Kell was Umbrella. Kell was not a bad guy. If only he had a second chance at life. A second chance to enjoy the small things in life that he took for granted: Rain, sand on a beach, moonlight. Moonlight? Forget daylight and enjoy the beauty of moonlight? The inscription on the card in the black case with the pale blue substance that Kell injected into himself: It didn't leave his mind. The blue substance spun around in his head, and then the vial grew larger. His whole vision was filled with the pale blue tone of the substance. After that, silhouettes of his surroundings started coming into view. He felt an adrenaline rush through his body. He felt like he couldn't lay down anymore. He brought his arms in front of him and pushed up off the floor throwing the door back and allowing him to get up. He didn't know what came over him, but his wounds were gone and his energy flowed. He ran up to the Tyrant faster than he ever ran, with half the effort. He slugged the Tyrant making it slip back and fall on its stomach. The Tyrant immediately got up and said, "What the hell are you? Oh, I see… You are another one of Umbrella's victims. Why are you fighting me? Umbrella has betrayed you as well, we are on the same side."

"No! I'm not like you!" Kell approached the Tyrant again. "I am human."

"Human? Look at yourself! You're no different from me!"

"Stop it! Shut up!"

"Can't handle the truth? Come on! Join me and we will cause the destruction of humanity!"

Kell laughed, "You are insane! It's that simple! You lost your marbles!"

"No!" The Tyrant yelled. "I am a supreme being, the most powerful biological weapon in the world!"

The Tyrant raised its arms and looked up like a deity would in a cheesy movie. Suddenly, a helicopter engine roared above them and a spotlight shone down. Kell managed to shield his eyes in time, but the Tyrant was looking upward and if it was as sensitive to light as Kell was, then the Tyrant was pretty much blind at this point. Kell decided not to take his chances, so he squinted while running towards the Tyrant. He shoved the creature and thrust kicked it. The creature seemed to be blind indeed, it was holding onto its face. Kell kicked and punched with all his strength until he pushed Tyrant into the elevator from which it came from. The Tyrant still seemed to be in a daze and distorted. Kell looked back at the S.T.A.R.S. and saw them climbing up a rope ladder dropped by the chopper. Kell saw the man that he fought minutes earlier, the man was waiting until his comrades went up the ladder. The man, the leader of S.T.A.R.S. acted like a true leader until the end. Kell didn't feel resentment toward that man anymore. That man, whatever his name was, was a good leader, leading his team on a dangerous, but honorable mission. As the leader of S.T.A.R.S. got on the ladder rope, Kell was ready to depart with them, when a massive explosion happened beneath the elevator sending fire and shrapnel everywhere, including a large metal plate in Kell's face. Kell fell back. He could feel the blood pouring down his face. He didn't care. That night had been extremely confusing for Kell. An explosion like that killed the Tyrant for sure. Kell didn't bother to struggle. He heard the helicopter depart and it calmed his mind. He was happy to know that he ended up helping out the good guys. Another explosion happened and then Kell couldn't hear anything anymore. All he knew was that the S.T.A.R.S. had escaped the explosion and avoided certain death.


	16. EPILOGUE

The helicopter took off before Smith could finish climbing the ladder. In flight, Smith completed his climb and entered the helicopter. His excitement and joy were wiped out instantly and replaced with a new kind of fear and nervousness. The four members of S.T.A.R.S. and Gwen were held at gunpoint by an unknown man. Nobody had to tell Smith that the man worked for Umbrella. The man held a rifle in his hand with which—to Smith's relief—none of his teammates dared to oppose the man. The OICW, and anyone who could handle it, were not to be taken lightly. Smith looked at all his teammates and all of them had the same face as he did: the blank look of failure. They exchanged looks. As the helicopter flew into the morning horizon, Smith looked at the sunrise, realizing that it could be the last sunrise he ever saw. He took the time to think about his comrades that they have lost: About Nancy Brown, Dallas Briggs and of course Jerrika Hawkins who was so close to surviving the horror. Only now, Smith wondered if his lost teammates were the lucky ones.

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End file.
